Just over two years since he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, the twice-impeached ex-president who fomented a riot to keep himself in power has declared himself a candidate for the presidency once more.
“America’s comeback starts right now”, Mr Trump said on Tuesday evening from Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida mansion that was searched by FBI agents in August.
“In order to make America great and glorious again I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States”, said Mr Trump, who is currently a subject in no fewer than three separate criminal investigations into his conduct.
Ahead of his speech, the former president filed paperwork on Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission to create a “Principal Campaign Committee”.
Speaking from the ballroom at the Florida mansion, Mr Trump claimed the end of his first term in office — when thousands of Americans were dying from Covid each day as the nation’s capital was still feeling from the riot he incited in a last-ditch attempt to remain in the White House — was a time when the US “stood ready for its golden age”.
“Our nation was at the pinnacle of power, prosperity and prestige, towering above all rivals vanquishing all enemies and striding into the future confident and so strong”, he said, before boasting of having “turned the page” on “globalist sellouts”, making use of an antisemitic trope frequently used to attack Jewish financiers.
He added that his exit from the White House in January 2021 had made the US “a nation in decline” and “a failing nation” that could only be rescued by returning him to power...
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