Former President Donald Trump announced his third presidential bid one week after the midterm elections
Brooke Singman, Fox News, Nov.16, 2024
(https://www.foxnews.com/politics/donald-trump-announces-2024-re-election-run-president)
PALM BEACH, Fla. – Former President Donald Trump announced that he is running for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, seeking to stage a dramatic return to the White House after having lost his bid for re-election to Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump, a Republican and the leader of the “Make America Great Again” movement, announced his third presidential bid on Tuesday during a speech at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, home after having teased a bid since leaving office in 2021.
“In order to make America great and glorious again. I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said Tuesday evening to a crowd of supporters.
“But just as I promised in 2016, I am your voice. I am your voice. The Washington establishment wants to silence us, but we will not let them do that. What we have built together over the past six years is the greatest movement in history because it is not about politics. It’s about our love for this great country, America, and we’re not going to let it fail,” said Trump.
“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,” he continued, blaming President Biden for the current state of the nation.
“In fact, we can go very far. We’re going to have to go far first. We have to get out of this ditch. And once we’re out, you’ll see things that nobody imagined for any country. It’s called the United States of America. And it’s an incredible place.”
Trump first won the presidency in 2016 against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. If he is elected again, he would become only the second president to retake the White House after having been ousted, a feat achieved by Grover Cleveland in 1892 after he had lost the presidency to Benjamin Harrison in 1888. A victory would make Trump the 45th and the 47th president.
Since his loss, Trump has challenged the legitimacy of the 2020 election results, repeatedly claiming the race was “rigged,” due to the COVID pandemic-era process of mail-in ballots. Trump falsely claimed the election was stolen, and his legal team filed a slew of lawsuits in battleground states across the nation. [Inaccurate.]
Trump’s announcement comes one week after the 2022 midterm elections in which Republicans did not obtain an anticipated “red wave” of victories. Democrats kept control of the Senate and if Republicans are able to capture a majority in the House, it is expected to be slight. The former president was heavily involved in the midterms, throwing his support behind Republican candidates across the nation. During the primaries, the majority of Trump-endorsed candidates were victorious, becoming the GOP nominee in their races.
The economy, which has been a top issue for voters during the 2022 midterm election cycle amid record-high inflation, was strong under Trump’s presidency—with an increase in middle-class family income, the lowest unemployment rate in half a century and unprecedented job growth.
The stock market hit record highs, with the Dow closing above 20,000 for the first time in 2017 and topping 30,000 in 2020, and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ also hitting record highs.
Trump also worked to cut red tape and reduce regulations facing American businesses and workers, working to put in place policies to bring back supply chains from overseas, in line with his “Make America Great Again” and “America First” messaging.
As for trade relations, Trump immediately withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ended the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in January 2017, replacing it with the existing United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which included new protections for American manufacturers and workers.
Trump also signed an executive order making it government policy to “Buy American and Hire American,” and took action to stop outsourcing of jobs overseas.
Another issue for Americans during the midterm election cycle has been energy and record-high gas prices.
Under the Trump administration, Trump ensured that the U.S. was the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, but President Biden reversed some of those policies and refocused on clean energy.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s foreign policy message was one that focused on “peace through strength.”
Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal—which the Biden administration began taking steps to re-enter when he took office in 2021.
Trump held a historic summit with Kim Jong Un in June 2018—he was the first sitting U.S. president to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea. ICBM testing was paused during the Trump administration, but North Korea did continue to test for short and medium-range ballistic missiles. North Korea has been ramping up its ballistic missile testing under the Biden administration.
Regarding the Middle East, the Trump administration brokered the Abraham accords, a “historic peace agreement” between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that normalized relations and created bilateral agreements regarding “investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, health care, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas of mutual benefit.”
In 2018, the Trump administration moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a relocation long debated in Washington – and one that showed the U.S. officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Trump’s administration also rebuilt the military, with more than $2.2 trillion in defense spending, delivering pay raises for service members and their families. Trump’s administration also created a new branch of the military— the Space Force.
Trump appointed and had three conservative justices confirmed to the Supreme Court during his presidency — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration worked to make communities safer, signing the First Step Act into law–the first landmark criminal justice reform legislation passed to reduce recidivism and help former inmates successfully rejoin society.
A law-and-order president, Trump delivered support for law enforcement and put a major focus on protecting and securing the U.S.-Mexico southern border.
(Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/donald-trump-announces-2024-re-election-run-president.)