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.
Image: Supporters gathered outside Mar-a-Lago head of the ‘big announcement’
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.
Image: Mr Trump endorsed former TV doctor Mehmet Oz – but he lost the midterms Senate race in Pennsylvania
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 US House Oversight Committee has issued subpoenas for depositions with former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton relating to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The Republican-controlled committee also subpoenaed the Justice Department for files relating to the paedophile financier, as well as eight former top law enforcement officials.
Donald Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein‘s crimes, claiming he ended their relationship a long time ago.
Image: Mr Trump and Mr Epstein at a party together in 1992. Pic: NBC News
The US president has repeatedly tried to draw a line under the Justice Department’s decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation, but politicians from both major political parties, as well as many in Mr Trump’s political base, have refused to drop their interest in the Epstein files.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, and since then, conspiracy theories have swirled about what information investigators gathered on him and who else may have been involved in his crimes.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee initiated the subpoenas for the Clintons last month, as well as demanding all communications between former president Joe Biden’s Democrat administration and the Justice Department about Epstein.
The committee previously issued a subpoena for an interview with Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who had been serving a prison sentence in Florida for luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. She was recently transferred to another facility in Texas.
Mr Clinton was among those acquainted with Epstein before the criminal investigation against him in Florida became public two decades ago. He has never been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them.
Mr Clinton previously said, through a spokesperson, that while he travelled on Epstein’s jet, he never visited his homes and had no knowledge of his crimes.
The subpoenaing of former president Bill Clinton is an escalation, both legally and politically.
Historically, it is rare for congressional oversight to demand deposition from former presidents of the United States.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice, had already been summonsed.
But the House Oversight Committee has now added Bill and Hillary Clinton, several former Attorneys General and former FBI directors to its list.
It signals bipartisan momentum – Democrats voting with Republicans for transparency.
The committee will now hear from several people with known ties to Epstein, his connection with Bill Clinton having been well-documented.
But the subpoenas set up a potential clash between Congress and the Department of Justice.
Donald Trump, the candidate, had vowed to release them. A government led by Mr Trump, the president, chose not to.
If Attorney General Pam Bondi still refuses to release the files, it will fuel claims of a constitutional crisis in the United States.
But another day of Epstein headlines demonstrates the enduring public interest in this case.
The subpoenas give the Justice Department until 19 August to hand over the requested records.
The committee is also asking the former officials to appear for depositions throughout August, September and October, concluding with Hillary Clinton on 9 October and Bill Clinton on 14 October.
Although several former presidents, including Mr Trump, have been issued congressional subpoenas, none has ever appeared before members under compulsion.
Last month, Mr Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release information presented to the grand jury that indicted Maxwell for helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been in contact with Donald Trump about a pardon, a source close to the rapper’s legal team has told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.
A White House spokesperson said it “will not comment on the existence or nonexistence of any clemency request”.
The sentence will likely be much shorter than that, however.
In July, he was found guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution – but cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking, which carried potential life sentences.
During an interview with news channel Newsmax last Friday, Mr Trump said “they have talked to me about Sean” but did not announce any decision.
Image: Combs reacts after the verdicts are read out in court. File pic: Reuters
The president seemed to cast doubt that he would grant a pardon, however.
“You know, I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great. And seemed like a nice guy, I didn’t know him well,” Trump said. “But when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”
“I don’t know,” Trump said. “It makes it more – I’m being honest, it makes it more difficult to do.”
Trump was then asked, “more likely a ‘no’ for Combs?”
Trump responded: “I would say so.”
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4:43
How the Diddy trial unfolded
Combs, who co-founded Bad Boy Records and launched the career of the late Notorious BIG, was for decades a huge figure in pop culture, as well as a Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and business entrepreneur, who presided over an empire ranging from fashion to reality TV.
Now, as well as the criminal conviction, he is also facing several civil lawsuits.
A woman charged with selling Friends actor Matthew Perry the dose of ketamine that killed him will go on trial next month.
The trial of Jasveen Sangha, allegedly known as the Ketamine Queen, will begin on 23 September after an order from a Los Angeles judge on Tuesday.
She is the only defendant standing trial over Perry’s death after four others reached plea agreements with prosecutors.
The 42-year-old, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with five counts of ketamine distribution, including one count of distribution resulting in death.
Sangha’s trial has been postponed four times after her lawyers said they needed longer to go through the prosecution’s evidence and to finish their own investigation
Perry died in his home in October 2023, aged 54, after getting ketamine from his regular doctor for treatment of depression, which is an increasingly common use for the surgical anaesthetic.
The actor was taking ketamine six to eight times a day before he died, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Perry illegally sought more ketamine from his doctor, Salvador Plasencia, after he wouldn’t give him as much as he wanted.
They allege he then sought more from Sangha, who allegedly presented herself as “a celebrity drug dealer with high-quality goods”.
Perry’s assistant and friend admitted to buying large amounts of ketamine for him from Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 in cash, a few days before his death.
Prosecutors allege that purchase included the doses that killed Perry.