Donald Trump officially announces his candidacy for the 2024 US presidential elections

Former US President Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the third time for the White House, saying: “America’s return begins now”.

“We’ve to save our country,” he said, speaking from his home in Florida.

Trump’s announcement comes as some Republicans blame him for the party’s lackluster performance in last week’s midterm elections.

President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump two years ago, has said he may run for re-election in 2024.

“We’re a nation on the decline,” Trump said speaking to an invited crowd from the ballroom at his private club, the Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach on Tuesday night.

He added, “The past two years under Joe Biden have been, for millions of Americans, a time of pain, hardship, anxiety and despair”.

“In the interest of making America great and glorious again, I tonight announce my candidacy for President of the United States,” he said.

Shortly before the speech, he filed the required paperwork with the Federal Election Commission formally announcing his presidential candidacy, setting up a fundraising account.

Meanwhile, supporters gathered outside Mar-a-Lago to wave Trump flags.

Trump’s speech lasted more than an hour, and touched on many of the same topics he’d been repeating on stage for months, included border security, energy independence, and crime, as well as attacks on Biden’s record in office.

He was joined onstage by his wife, Melania Trump, at the end of the speech.

However, there were fewer family members present at some of his past events and Ivanka Trump and Donald Jr didn’t.

About 11,000 miles away at the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, Biden was asked if he had a reaction to Trump’s announcement.

“No, not really,” said the Democratic president.

And last week, he was photographed laughing when a reporter pointed out that Trump’s support base remains strong.

Trump’s unusually early announcement of the November 5, 2024 election is seen as a tactic to steal votes from potential challengers for the Republican White House.

And although Trump is the first to enter the race and immediately becomes the leader, he is expected to face challengers.

The challengers could include former Vice President Mike Pence, 63, and rising star Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44.

In Tuesday’s remarks, Trump largely avoided restating his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him by mass voter fraud.

He left office after one term in 2021, refusing to concede defeat by seven million votes.

The conspiracy theories debunked have angered supporters who rioted on Capitol Hill in the final days of his presidency, as lawmakers met to certify President Biden’s victory.

Trump became the first president to stand trial twice, despite Senate Republicans thwarting Democrats in Congress in their attempt to remove him from office.

He went ahead with his announcement on Tuesday despite pleas from his advisers for a delay until after run-off elections for a Georgia Senate seat next month, amid fears his candidacy could be a major distraction.

Some conservatives blamed Trump for the Republicans’ failure to secure sweeping victories in the midterm elections last week.

The Republican Party is poised to take power in the US House of Representatives, but that will be by a very small margin.

Democrats retained control of the Senate, and may consolidate their majority after the December runoff in Georgia.

Last week’s results were mixed for congressional candidates Trump supports.

Candidates he supported were defeated in key states such as Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan after echoing his electoral plots, while others won in Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Trump’s quest for the White House comes at a time when he is being investigated on several fronts, including the Justice Department’s investigation into removing files classified by the government as classified from the White House to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his presidency.

Trump is admired by conservatives for appointing three justices to the Supreme Court, enacting sweeping tax cuts, as well as presiding over a Middle East peace deal and killing the leader of the Islamic State group.

But American divisions widened during his turbulent four years in office, as he was accused of ruling through his tweets, circumventing far-right violence, a chaotic response to the coronavirus pandemic, and alienating US allies over his “America First” policy.