By Isabelle Wilson-
Donald Trump on Tuesday night announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, likely sparking another period of tumult in US politics and especially his own political party.
The announcement sets the pace for a tense rivalry with Joe Biden and other candidates for the presidency.
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Trump vowed to overhaul the nation’s voting laws, claiming that a winner would be declared on election night.
The former president attacked U.S president Joe Biden, describing him as the “face of left-wing failure and government corruption” and accused him of worsening inflation and “surrendering” America’s energy independence. He also slammed the administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country”.
“Our country is being destroyed before your very eyes,” he said, casting his four years in office as a glowing success, despite leaving behind a nation shaken by disease and political turmoil.
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“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said from ballroom of his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he stood on a stage crowded with American flags and Make America Great Again banners.
He declared: “America’s golden age is just ahead.”
His announcement comes a day that many high-profile, Trump-endorsed candidates were unsuccessful in the midterm elections, leading to some asking the former president to delay his announcement or not to run at all.
Trump’s announcement also coincided on Tuesday with the release of Mike Pence’s memoir, So Help Me God, in which the ex-president’s once-faithful lieutenant criticizes him for his conduct on January 6. The former vice-president is also manoeuvring toward a possible 2024 run despite falling out of favour with the Maga base.
Trump insisted that he was the only candidate who could deliver a Republican victory in 2024.
“This is not a task for a politician or a conventional candidate,” he said. “This is a task for a great movement.”
His candidacy comes in the face of serious legal troubles, including investigations by the justice department into the removal of hundreds of classified documents from the White House to his Florida estate on top of the deadly insurrection in the 6 January attack.
“I’m a victim,” Trump said, in reference to the Russia investigation and the raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump said his campaign was a “quest to save our country.”
In the less than two years since Biden took office, a period Trump referred to as “the pause”, he accused his successor of inflicting “pain, hardship, anxiety and despair” with his economic and domestic policies.
Trump offered an alternative vision, which he called the “national greatness agenda”.
Giving a taste of policies he would make as president, he mentioned the death penalty for drug dealers, term limits for members of Congress and planting an American flag on Mars. He also promised to protect “paternal rights” and keep transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The one promise he can’t make is winning the elections, if his legal woes do not eventually prevent or obstruct his participation.
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