Donald Trump has officially launched a third bid for the US presidency after several hints amid legal probes and blame for the Republican Party’s underwhelming midterm election results.
He made the announcement from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and said: “America’s comeback starts right now.”
Mr Trump said that “everybody was doing great” after his four years in office, “the world was at peace” and that he “kept his promises”.
“Two years ago we were a great nation. And soon we will be a great nation again,” the former US president added.
“The decline of America is being forced upon us by Biden and the radical left… this is not a decline we must accept.”
He delivered the address to an audience of several hundred supporters, club members and gathered press in a ballroom at his club in Florida – flanked by dozens of American flags and banners that read: “Make America Great Again!”.
Ahead of his speech, Mr Trump’s aides filed paperwork for his 2024 presidential bid.
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His much-anticipated declaration to stand comes as Republicans are still reeling from voters’ rejection of several of their candidates in the US midterm elections– many of them personally chosen and endorsed by Mr Trump.
He had hoped to use his party’s expected gains as a springboard to vault himself to his party’s nomination. Instead, he now finds himself being blamed for backing a series of losing candidates after disappointing results in which Democrats retained control of the Senate.
Aides and allies had urged Mr Trump to wait until after the midterms were over – and to wait until after a 6 December Senate run-off election in Georgia – before announcing a presidential bid.
But the former president, it seems, was eager to return to the spotlight.
He is also hoping to stave off a long list of potential challengers, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who cruised to re-election last week and is now being urged by many in his party to run for president as well.
The midterms last week ended up being as much of a referendum on the defeated former president as it was on incumbent President Joe Biden, with more than a quarter of people (28%) saying their vote had been made “to oppose Donald Trump,” even though he was no longer in office.
He remains a key force in the Republican Party, but is a divisive figure after his controversial four-year term ended with the deadly Capitol riots on 6 January 2021.
He has continued to falsely claim the election defeat the riots were protesting, was a result of fraud, and is currently facing a string of investigations, including into his tax affairs and whether he took classified documents from the White House after leaving office.
However, last month, a poll found 41% of Americans viewed him favourably.
Impeached twice
Another campaign is a remarkable turn for any former president, much less one who made history as the first to be impeached twice.
Just one president in US history has been elected to two nonconsecutive terms: Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892.
“Hopefully, tomorrow will turn out to be one of the most important days in the history of our Country!” Mr Trump had written on his Truth Social media network on Monday.
The style choices of politicians have long been scrutinised by voters and the media.
Women have historically been subject to more inspection for their looks than men.
But all politicians are communicating through their style, according to two experts.
“We receive most of our information, many of us, through screens and through the visuals,” says Hazel Clark, professor of design and fashion at the Parsons School of Design in New York.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has been leaning into trouser suits.
“The well-fitted suit, the more masculine suit, is telling voters that she is not a politician’s wife, she is not the president’s wife, she is the president,” says Deirdre Clemente, professor of history at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
She wore a dark suit to make her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
The look “gives that sense of the legal profession, judges and authority. I think it was just saying ‘I’m here to be taken seriously, I can be your leader’,” says Ms Clark.
Many of the audience were wearing white, thought to be a reference to the suffragettes, who fought for women to have vote.
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“I think there’s a lot of weight in the choice of white in the audience of the DNC that night and her choice of a black suit was a power move,” Ms Clemente said.
Donald Trump has had a consistent style for many years – he’s known for his dark blue suit and silky red tie.
“He seems to have been wearing the same red tie since the 1970s. It seems to have gotten longer,” said Ms Clemente.
“It is his way of projecting power, confidence and stability.”
And his vice presidential pick JD Vance seems to have adapted his style to match.
“It’s putting on a uniform to say we are all one, we are all following this person. I think sameness, perhaps, with the party as well,” said Ms Clark.
“With Trump it’s almost become like a costume now.”
Harris often wears a pearl necklace, a reference to her college sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, which was founded by black women at Howard University.
“Her wearing of the necklace is absolutely a shout-out to all the women who have supported her and that sorority is central to that,” said Ms Clemente.
The vice president is also known for her love of Converse shoes.
The trainers, which are associated with American basketball culture, “are a powerful cultural tool because what she’s saying is these shoes are just like the ones you have in your closet”.
Mr Trump and his supporters often wear the instantly recognisable red Make America Great Again baseball cap.
“The MAGA hat has an incredible amount of power, especially here in battleground states,” said Ms Clemente. “You see MAGA hats all around.”
Baseball caps are “ubiquitous in being used to signify something, it’s like having a slogan on your t-shirt”, says Ms Clark.
One accessory all US politicians are rarely seen without is an American flag pin badge on their lapel, which can be used to show patriotism.
It may also project a message that “we are all fighting for the same team” despite political differences, said Ms Clemente.
With seven weeks to go until the US goes to the polls, Sky’s dedicated team of correspondents goes on the road to gauge what citizens in key swing states make of the choice for president.
This week they focus on the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Mark Stone travels to Florida where the foiled attack took place, while James Matthews has been finding out more about the suspected would-be assassin in his hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina.
Plus, Martha Kelner attended a Trump town hall in Flint, Michigan, to hear him speak for the first time after the attempt on his life, and asked voters if it will impact the way they vote in November.
A previous Titan submersible dive to the Titanic was aborted due to an apparent mechanical failure, one of the mission’s passengers has said.
Fred Hagen had paid a fee to go on a dive in the Titan in 2021, two years before it imploded and killed all five passengers onboard.
He told a US Coast Guard panel investigating the tragedy on Friday that his trip was aborted underwater when the Titan began malfunctioning and it was clear they weren’t going to reach the Titanic wreck site.
“We realised that all it could do was spin around in circles, making right turns,” Mr Hagen said. “At this juncture, we obviously weren’t going to be able to navigate to the Titanic.”
He said the Titan resurfaced and the mission was scrapped.
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