The race for the 2024 presidential elections begins: Trump's announcement raises the chances that Biden will run for re-election | US elections

Donald Trump had been about 20 minutes into the speech Tuesday night with which, following the script of his own thriller, he announced that he was running for the 2024 presidential election. It was then that Joe Biden, his old man —and perhaps future — opponent, accused him on Twitter of having "defrauded the United States." The message was accompanied by a carefully edited video that blamed the former president for "manipulating the economy in favor of the rich," sinking jobs, encouraging extremism, attacking healthcare and persecuting abortion.

The synchronicity between Trump's speech —a tiring, pessimistic and angry revelry lasting more than 60 minutes delivered at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in which he promised to “make America great again”— and the reaction of the president, who in At that time, he was at the G-20 summit in Bali, immersed in managing the crisis caused by the launch of a missile on Poland, he suggested that Biden had a plan. No one, much less the White House, was able to take the announcement by surprise: Trump has been pointing the way of his intentions for months and had made it clear that he was not going to listen to those who, among his collaborators, family members and members of the Republican Party, tried to convince him in recent days that it was not the time to launch his career towards 2024.

The electoral disappointment of his people, they told him, is still too fresh, and there is still the celebration of the second round that will decide the last seat in the Senate in Georgia on December 6. Even in the absence of that, the upper house already belongs to the Democrats. The low fell Wednesday night into the hands of Republicans. But the advantage is much smaller than expected, in large part, because of the shadow that Trump cast over the campaign, by supporting inexperienced and extremist candidates in the key states that have given the Senate to the Democrats.

A few hours after the event in Palm Beach (Florida), The New York Times, also prepared for the eventuality, he published a story detailing the plan hatched “for months” by the White House to react to Trump's third presidential bid, which comes unusually soon. There are still two years to go until the elections, but the tycoon is confident that his latest trick will help him get around some of the many judicial and fiscal entanglements in which he is involved due to his businesses, due to the classified papers that the FBI found in, precisely, Mar-a-Lago and for his involvement in the attack on the Capitol on January 6. (Justice Department officials have already made it clear that the announcement of Trump's candidacy changes nothing for them.)

against democracy

Among the points of that plan, which started hours before the meeting in Mar-a-Lago with the launch of an official website to gloss the achievements of the Biden Administration, is to continue with the message, which has proven successful in the last legislative elections, that supporting the tycoon represents a danger to democracy. They will also work to counter misinformation and attacks by the former president. The two followed up Tuesday with a speech riddled with exaggerations, half-truths and outright lies, in which he said: "The decline of our country is forced by Biden and the lunatics of the radical left who are leaving our government squarely at the height of the bitumen". It is not yet clear if Biden's project, who turns 80 this Sunday, to run again in the elections is included among those points.

The president's aides are counting on the possibility of facing Trump again to bolster their desire. Biden has always said that the idea of ​​neutralizing him was what led him to run in 2020, and he prides himself on having been the "only one capable of defeating him." In an appearance last week to congratulate himself on the results of the legislative elections, the Democratic leader said that his intention was to run again, but that this is "a family decision" that he will postpone until next year. He also spoke about Trump's main enemy at home, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: "It'll be fun to see how they fight," Biden said.

DeSantis met with members of his party behind closed doors while Trump spoke to his supporters. Before, he had asked the press to compare his spectacular results in Florida with the performance of the candidates supported by the magnate. He is not the only one in the party who has taken off his mask and has stood up fearlessly before Trump, who continues to have a huge ascendancy over Republican supporters: 40% would support him, according to polls, and those attending his massive rallies they often behave like cult members accustomed to blowing themselves up when they put down their leader.

The reactions of the last few hours among his people have ranged from his daughter, Ivanka —who has made it clear to him that he better not count on her for the campaign this time— to Jeb Bush —who highlighted "the lack of energy" in Mar's speech -a-Lago and called him "Sleepy Donnie", in line with Trump's nickname for Biden, Sleepy Joe— or Mike Pence, his vice president. He has said, taking advantage of the fact that he is promoting his memoir: "We will have better options for 2024."

fratricidal emergencies

It is true that the party is involved in other fratricidal emergencies. After choosing Kevin McCarthy as their House candidate on Tuesday, Republicans renewed confidence in Mitch McConnell as their leader in the Senate, a position he has held since 2007. McConnell, who has been in the crosshairs of accountability seekers Due to the electoral fiasco during these days, he faced last-minute opposition from Florida Senator Rick Scott, in an uprising that demonstrates the delicate moment that conservatives are living in the Capitol.

The press, for its part, has shown signs of having learned certain lessons from the past. The addictive up-to-the-minute broadcast show that Trump put on during the 2016 campaign undoubtedly contributed to his triumph. The national newspapers received Tuesday's announcement with restraint and remembering the candidate's record: two impeachments (political trials) and a call for insurrection on January 6 that ended in violence.

The big news channels on cable television refused, for their part, to broadcast the speech in its entirety. Thus, they avoided the spread of falsehoods about climate change, the border with Mexico or the performance of the economy during the previous Administration. The usually faithful Fox News cut off the broadcast once the presidential announcement was made. So did CNN. Further to the left, MSNBC didn't even share the feed live. Instead, he gave an interview with the re-elected Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, who is also a White House candidate.

Although the most astonishing case was that of the New York Post. The tabloid —owned by Rupert Murdoch, another who seems willing to cut ties with the tycoon he exalted— broke the news in its even-page print edition, in an unsigned half-column in which he mockingly spoke of the “movement surprise no opponent could have anticipated” from a “Florida retiree,” “famous for its gilded lobbies and firing people on reality shows.” “He will be 78 years old in 2024. His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is charred steak with ketchup.” The article ended like this, in the past tense: "Trump also served as the 45th president of the United States."

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