As expected, Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. In his more than hour-long speech in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom, the 76-year-old right-wing populist painted a bleak picture of the situation in the United States. Under his successor Joe Biden, the country was “a nation in decline”. "In two years, the Biden administration has destroyed the US economy," Trump said. "The blood-soaked streets of our once-great cities are cesspools of violent crime."
Trump said he would make sure Biden didn't get "four more years" in the White House. "Two years ago we were a great nation and soon we will be a great nation again."
The most controversial US President in recent decades also submitted official documents for a presidential candidacy on Tuesday. The corresponding form for the 2024 presidential election has been published on the website of the US Federal Elections Commission.
Trump was voted out of office in November 2020 after just one term in the White House. The announcement of a renewed candidacy came at a time when Trump was politically shaken because of the poor performance of his Republicans in last week's midterm elections. Many Republicans blamed Trump, who has divided the United States like no other president before him, for the disappointing course of the midterms.
With an announcement of a new attempt for the White House two years before the election, Trump is likely to try to gain an advantage over intra-party rivals such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Conservative presidential nominee will be decided in the 2024 primary.
Biden responded to Trump's announcement of a renewed presidential bid with a tweet from Indonesia, where he is attending the G20 summit. Donald Trump "failed" during his time as President.
Real estate mogul Trump surprisingly won the 2016 presidential election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party. There followed four chaotic years in the White House, marked by scandals and affairs - and two impeachment proceedings. Trump pursued a nationalist course in domestic and foreign policy under the motto "America First" and repeatedly alienated Western allies such as Germany.
In the presidential election in November 2020, Trump lost to his challenger Biden, who had promised a return to political normality after the grueling Trump years. However, Trump did not acknowledge his electoral defeat and spread widely refuted allegations of voter fraud, which ultimately led to the storming of the US Capitol by radical Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
After leaving the White House, Trump, who was still extremely popular with the conservative base, was able to quickly reassert his power over the Republicans. The people's tribune, who is the subject of a series of investigations, has a partly fanatical following among right-wing voters.
In US history, only one president has managed to return to the White House after being voted out: Democrat Grover Cleveland was US President between 1885 and 1889 and then again between 1893 and 1897.
