Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a pre-election rally in support of Republican candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 5, 2022.
Mike Segar | Reuters
WASHINGTON — After weeks of heightened speculation, former President Donald Trump said Monday he would make a “big announcement” on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from his resort town of Mar-a-Lago, where he is expected to launch his campaign. presidential election in 2024.
“I’m going to make a very big announcement on Tuesday, November 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” Trump said at a Save America rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on the eve of the midterm elections. . “We don’t want anything to detract from the importance of tomorrow,” he added, apparently in an effort to explain why he wasn’t announcing his race that same night.
Trump reportedly considered announcing the start of his third presidential campaign on the eve of Election Day, but National Republicans contacted him and urged him to wait, fearing his announcement would energize Democrats and alienate them. potentially independent voters.
Trump’s line on Nov. 15 came near the end of a more than 90-minute speech, during which he railed against Democrats, judges who ruled unfavorably in cases against his family, airports run-down Americans and most importantly, President Joe Biden.
A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request from CNBC to confirm that his Nov. 15 event will be a campaign launch.
But Trump is eager to launch his third presidential campaign, and preparations for campaign infrastructure and staff have ramped up significantly in recent weeks, and an initial list of potential top aides has already been released.
Trump’s speech in Ohio included relatively few mentions of the Republican candidates he was in the state to promote, although several of them were invited onstage for brief remarks with Trump.
An awkward moment occurred when Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was booed by the crowd as he took the stage. DeWine is seen as a moderate establishment Republican who did not endorse one of the guiding principles of Trump’s MAGA movement: the false claim that Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Instead of focusing on Republicans in the election on Tuesday, Trump’s remarks sounded more like a rallying speech tailored for his own upcoming presidential campaign, with strong echoes of his 2016 campaign speeches.
Trump leaned heavily on themes from his 2016 campaign such as illegal immigration and crime, saying Democrats allowed undocumented immigrants to enter the country and commit violent crimes.
To illustrate his point, Trump related an anecdote about the sentencing earlier this year of a gang member convicted of his role in the brutal assault of a teenager.
But the crime Trump blamed Democrats on Monday actually took place in 2018, when Trump was in office.
“These people are animals,” Trump said, before noting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had previously objected to him calling people “animals.”
“Of course, I think it’s an animal too,” Trump said of Pelosi, pausing to let the crowd applaud his remark.
Trump then quickly pivoted on how the media would surely say, “Oh, what a horrible thing he said about Nancy!” But it was justified, Trump said, because “she impeached me twice for nothing. Nothing!”
The Democratic House Speaker has long been the target of fierce verbal attacks from Republicans. But those words were cast in a new light this fall, when a conspiracy theorist broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home on Oct. 28 and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer.
The attacker, identified by police as David DePape, said his goal was to kidnap the Speaker of the House and break his kneecaps.
As Trump nears the official launch of the 2024 presidential race, polls show he has unprecedented support among Republican voters.
Trump averages more than 20 percentage points over his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is the only other candidate with consistent double-digit support.
Trump would also enter the race with more than $60 million in cash held by his leadership PAC, Save America, and a prodigious fundraising operation that is sucking up small dollar donations at an unprecedented rate.
If Trump seeks and wins the Republican nomination, he would likely face President Joe Biden in a 2020 presidential election rematch.
Biden has yet to officially kick off his re-election campaign, but plans for one have reportedly solidified in recent weeks.
#Trump #suggests #launch #presidential #campaign #November #Florida