Trump announces 2024 presidential run, promises to defeat ‘radical left Democrats’

PTI, Nov 16, 2022, 8:57 AM IST

Former US president Donald Trump has announced that he will run for the US president in 2024 to make America “great and glorious” again, vowing to fight like no one to defeat the “radical left Democrats” that are trying to destroy the country from within.

Trump, seeking a potential rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden, made the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Tuesday, a week after midterm elections in which Republicans failed to win as many seats in Congress as they had hoped for.

“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing that I will run for President of the United States. This will be our campaign altogether,” Trump, 76, told his cheering supporters.

“I am your voice,” he said, asserting that he will ensure that US President Biden is not re-elected in 2024.

Shortly before making the announcement from his resort in Florida, in front of some 400 invited guests, Trump, 76, filed the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

“I am running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be. We have not reached that pinnacle, believe it or not,” Trump said.

“This campaign will be about issues, vision and success and we will not stop, we will not quit until we’ve achieved the highest goals and made our country greater than it has ever been before. We can do this. We can do this,” he said.

Incumbent President Biden, who turns 80 on November 20, has said that he intends to run but would take a final decision during the Christmas-New Year vacation. This is Trump’s third bid at the White House. He won in 2016 in his maiden attempt to defeat the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but lost to Biden in 2020.

“Are you getting ready? And I am too,” Trump told his supporters, noting that his Republican Party did not do as well as it should have while emphasising that the Republican candidates supported by him had a better strike rate.

The United States is going through tough times, he said, acknowledging that this is not going to be an easy task.

“Together we will be taking on the most corrupt forces and entrenched interests. Our country is being destroyed before your very eyes,” he said.

During his speech, Trump listed out the accomplishments of his 2016-2020 presidency and urged his countrymen to unite.

“Success was greater than this country has ever had. We were leapfrogging China, leapfrogging everybody else and everybody wanted to be something,” he said.

“So, from now until election day in 2024, … I will fight like no one has ever fought before. We will defeat the radical left Democrats that are trying to destroy our country from within,” he said.

Trump lashed out at the Biden administration.

“Joe Biden is the face of the left-wing,” he alleged.

The United States cannot take another four years of Biden.

“It can only take so much,” he said.

“Our victory will be built upon big Ideas, bold ambitions and daring dreams for America’s future. We need daring dreams,” he said.

“The radical left Democrats have embraced an extreme ideology of government domination and control. Our approach is the opposite one, based on freedom values, individual responsibility and just plain common sense,” Trump said.

“We will again put America First,” he said, adding that other countries must pay to come into the American market.

Trump took a dig at Chinese President Xi Jinping and described him as the president for life.

“On day one, we will end Joe Biden’s war on American energy,” he promised.

The socialist disaster known as the ‘Green New Deal’, which is destroying the country, and the many crippling regulations that it has spawned will be immediately terminated so that the United States can again breathe, grow and thrive as it should, he said.