Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign
Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, announced his campaign for a nonconsecutive second presidential term in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on November 15, 2022.
Donald Trump for President 2024
Donald Trump
45th President of the United States (2017–2021)
Announced: November 15, 2022
Presumptive nominee: March 6, 2024[a]
- Steven Cheung (communications director)[2]
- Susie Wiles (senior advisor)[3]
- Brian Jack (senior advisor)[3]
- Chris LaCivita (senior advisor)[3]
- Eric Branstad (strategist)[3]
- Jason Miller (senior advisor)[4]
- Karoline Leavitt (national press secretary)[5]
US$99,376,999.72[6] (February 29, 2024)
Trump has campaigned on vastly expanding the authority of the federal government, particularly the executive branch, which calls for a reimposition of the Jacksonian spoils system,[7][8] invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military onto American streets,[9][10] and directing the Department of Justice to go after domestic political enemies.[10] Other campaign issues include: implementing anti-immigrant policies and a massive deportation operation;[11] pursuing an isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda;[12][13] repealing the Affordable Care Act;[14][15] pursuing a climate change denial and anti-clean energy platform;[16][17][18] terminating the Department of Education;[17] implementing anti-LGBT policies;[19][17] and pursuing what has been described as a neomercantilist trade agenda.[20][21]
Trump has been leaning into violent and authoritarian rhetoric throughout the campaign.[22][23][24][25] Trump has increasingly used dehumanizing and violent rhetoric against his political enemies.[22][26][27] His 2024 campaign has been noted for leaning into nativist[28] and anti-LGBT rhetoric.[29]
The campaign is unfolding as Trump faces the legal aftermath of four criminal indictments filed against him in 2023, as well as a civil investigation of the Trump Organization in New York. The campaign has continued to promote false claims that the former 2020 election was stolen,[30] and comes in the wake of Trump's unprecedented attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election[31][32] and its culmination in the January 6 United States Capitol attack,[33][34] which has been widely described as an attempted coup d'état[35][36] or self-coup.[37][38] Trump has publicly embraced[39] the January 6 attack and has promised to pardon those charged for their involvement in the attack.[40][41][42]
National primary polling shows Trump leading by 50 points over other candidates.[43] After he won a landslide victory in the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, Trump was generally described as being the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president,[44][45] with a process of consolidation now underway.[46]
Background
Trump, the incumbent president, unsuccessfully sought election to a second term in the 2020 United States presidential election, losing to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who obtained an electoral vote of 306 to Trump's 232. Trump also lost the popular vote by seven million votes.[47] He refused to concede the loss and claimed that the election was stolen. Trump and his allies in seven key states then allegedly devised a plot to create and submit fraudulent certificates of ascertainment that falsely asserted Trump had won the electoral college vote in those states.[48] The intent was to pass the fraudulent certificates to Mike Pence to count them rather than the authentic certificates and overturn Joe Biden's victory. Trump reportedly had been considering a 2024 presidential run immediately after his loss in the election if the plot failed to "work out."[49][50] In the week of November 9, 2020, Trump indicated to Republican Party senator Kevin Cramer: "If this doesn't work out, I'll just run again in four years."[51] Later, a group of Trump's supporters attacked the United States Capitol building to prevent the election results from being certified.[52][53]
With one week remaining in his presidency, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for incitement of insurrection for his actions during the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill attack, but was acquitted in the Senate with a bipartisan 57–43 vote in favor of conviction, which fell short of the two-thirds supermajority (67 out of 100 senators) required.[54]
In December 2021, CNN reported that "Trump's wait-and-see approach to the 2024 election has frozen the next Republican presidential primary", with potential challengers keeping their heads down while awaiting Trump's official decision on the matter.[55]
In July 2022, as the public hearings of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack were progressing, Trump was reportedly considering making an early announcement of his 2024 candidacy.[56][57] On July 14, 2022, Intelligencer published an interview with Trump, based upon which they reported that Trump had already made up his mind, and was just deciding when to declare.[58] Following the August 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, many of Trump's allies urged that he announce his candidacy sooner, including some who had previously advised that he defer an announcement until after the mid-term elections.[59] During a rally in Iowa in the run-up to the 2022 United States midterm elections, Trump stated, "in order to make our country successful and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again", indicating that he might announce his candidacy soon thereafter, prompting speculation that he would announce as soon as the week of November 14, 2022.[60][61]
After months of speculation, Trump announced his candidacy for president in a November 15, 2022, speech to supporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.[62][63] His announcement received wide media coverage and a mixed response from both Democrats and Republicans. Some Democrats warily welcomed the campaign, viewing Trump as beatable,[64][65] while others opposed it, citing negative effects it could have on U.S. democracy.[66][67][68] Some Republicans, consisting mostly of Trump loyalists, welcomed the campaign, while others (including many Republican elected officials)[69] opposed it, viewing Trump as a weak and beatable candidate who had cost the Republicans the past several election cycles.[70][71][72]
In August 2023, Trump was indicted separately both by the federal government and the state of Georgia on numerous criminal conspiracy and fraud charges he is alleged to have committed along with co-conspirators during efforts to illegally change and overturn the results of the lost 2020 presidential election.[73] The indictments allege that Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to illegally alter the results of the 2020 election via fraudulent electors in the Trump fake electors plot as well as pressuring government officials to illegally change vote tallies during incidents such as the Trump–Raffensperger phone call. Prior to these indictments on charges relating to Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, on March 30, 2023, Trump was also indicted for 34 felony counts of fraud stemming from his alleged role in falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign.[74][75] Trump called his indictment political persecution and election interference.[76] Later, on June 8, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly improperly retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence and destroying evidence related to the government probe.[77] In addition to the four criminal indictments brought against Trump in Georgia, Washington, Florida, and New York, on May 9, Trump was found liable in a civil lawsuit for sexual abuse and defamation against journalist E. Jean Carroll.[78] Trump said that he will appeal the decision, describing it to be "unconstitutional silencing" and "political persecution."[79]
Campaign finances
On November 15, 2022, Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 United States presidential election and set up a fundraising account.[227][228] In March 2023, the campaign began diverting 10 percent of the donations to Trump's leadership PAC which had paid $16 million for his legal bills by June 2023.[229] Trump's fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee was noted to prioritize payments to his Save America PAC before the party itself.[230] Since leaving office in January, 2021 to March, 2024, Trump has spent more than $100 million in legal fees from campaign accounts.[231] Trump's leadership PAC Save America spent $76.5 million since March 30, 2023 to February, 2024, with approximately $47.4 million directly going towards legal expenditures.[232]
In early 2024, Trump noticeably lagged Biden in total fundraising in part due to his diverting of donations to pay legal bills related to his many criminal trials.[233] At the start of March, 2024, Trump's campaign had $50 million in cash on hand and Trump-aligned Super PACs had $52 million; while Biden's campaign had $155 million in cash on hand and Biden-aligned Super PACs had $64 million.[234] According to a March 28 Reuters article, large contributions made up 65% of Trump's support, compared to 55% of Biden's support.[235]
Trump has been noted for an "unprecedented" mixing of personal business and political fundraising during his 2024 campaign.[236] Trump has promoted $59.99 bibles, $399 sneakers, $99 "Victory47" cologne, and $99 Trump-branded NFT digital trading cards for his personal, non-campaign accounts.[237][238] Trump's campaign has been noted for spending large sums of campaign money at Trump-owned businesses, in particular his Mar-a-Lago resort and the Trump National Doral Miami.[239]
Post-announcement developments
Three days after Trump announced his candidacy, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith to serve as special counsel for the investigations regarding Trump's role in the January 6 attack and into mishandling of government records.[285][286] Special counsels can be appointed when there can be a conflict of interest or the appearance of it, and Garland said the announced political candidacies of both Trump and President Biden prompted him to take what he described as an "extraordinary step".[285] Special counsel investigations operate largely independent of Justice Department control under decades-old federal regulations, and Garland said the "appointment underscores the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters".[286]
On November 19, 2022, Elon Musk, four weeks after taking ownership of Twitter, reinstated both Trump's personal account and Trump's campaign account, nearly two years after Trump was permanently banned from the platform by previous Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, due to Twitter's Glorification of Violence and Civic Integerity policies, following the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[287]
In late November 2022, Kanye West announced his own candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. Shortly thereafter, West visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, bringing with him Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier.[288][289] West claimed that after he asked Trump to be his vice-presidential candidate, "Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was going to lose".[290] Trump responded with a statement that West "unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about",[291] and in a further statement acknowledged advising West to drop out of the race.[292] Several other possible 2024 contenders spoke in the aftermath of this event, with Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson calling the meeting "very troubling",[293] and Trump's former vice president Mike Pence calling on Trump to apologize for giving Fuentes "a seat at the table".[294] Mitch McConnell said that Trump was unlikely to win the 2024 presidential election as a result of the dinner.[295]
On December 3, 2022, following the publication of "The Twitter Files" by Elon Musk, Trump complained of election fraud and posted to Truth Social, calling for "the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution."[296][297][298]
In early 2023, Trump told his staff to hire white nationalist and anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer to work on his campaign. After a backlash, the campaign decided not to hire her.[299]
After several years of vilifying mail-in voting and early voting as rife with fraud and a contributor to supposed 2020 election fraud, by April 2024 Trump was advising supporters to use those voting methods in the coming election. The RNC was also encouraging Republican voters to use those methods, as well as promoting ballot harvesting, which they called "ballot chasing." Ballot harvesting was the subject of the 2022 Dinesh D'Souza film 2000 Mules, which falsely alleged an organized scheme by Democrats to commit fraud by the method.[300][301][302][303][304]
During the campaign, Trump often referred to "election integrity" to allude to his continuing lie that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, as well as baseless predictions of future mass election fraud. As he did during the 2020 election cycle, without evidence Trump told supporters that Democrats might try to rig the 2024 election. Many Republicans believe a conspiracy theory claiming Democrats engage in systematic election fraud to steal elections, insisting election integrity is a major concern, though voting fraud is extremely rare. By 2022, Republican politicians, conservative cable news outlets and talk radio echoed a narrative of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon that "if Democrats don't cheat, they don't win." Appearing with Trump in April 2024, House Speaker Mike Johnson baselessly suggested "potentially hundreds of thousands of votes" might be cast by undocumented migrants; as president, Trump falsely asserted that millions of votes cast by undocumented migrants had deprived him of a popular vote victory in the 2016 election. Politico reported in June 2022 that the RNC sought to deploy an "army" of poll workers and attorneys in swing states who could refer what they deemed questionable ballots in Democratic voting precincts to a network of friendly district attorneys to challenge. Media Matters reported that in March 2024 RNC co-chair Lara Trump said the party had the ability to train poll workers who could handle ballots, rather than merely observe polling places. Trump's political operation said in April 2024 that it planned to deploy more than 100,000 attorneys and volunteers to polling places across battleground states, with an "election integrity hotline" for poll watchers and voters to report alleged voting irregularities. Trump told a rally audience in December 2023 that they needed to "guard the vote" in Democratic-run cities. He had complained that his 2020 campaign was not adequately prepared to challenge his loss in courts; some critics said his 2024 election integrity effort is actually intended to gather allegations to overwhelm the election resolution process should he challenge the 2024 election results. Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer who defeated every Trump court challenge after the 2020 election, remarked, "I think they are going to have a massive voter suppression operation and it is going to involve very, very large numbers of people and very, very large numbers of lawyers."[305]
Mike Pence served as Trump's vice president from 2017 to 2021, with Pence having been Trump's chosen running mate in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. In March 2021, Bloomberg News reported that if Trump runs again in 2024, Pence "likely won't be on the ticket" and that Trump had "discussed alternatives to Pence", while Trump's advisors "have discussed identifying a Black or female running mate for his next run".[306] In April 2021, Trump indicated that he was considering Florida governor Ron DeSantis for the position, noting his friendship with him;[307] he later criticized and ridiculed DeSantis[308] who launched his own presidential campaign on May 24, 2023.[309] In June 2022, a former aide testified that Trump had opined to his staff during the Capitol Hill attack that Pence "deserved" the chants of "hang Mike Pence" made by the mob.[310][311] Names raised as possible candidates for the position include:[306][312][313][314][315][316][317]
Trump has claimed that he has already picked his running mate, but refuses to tell anyone[318] and says that there is "only a 25 percent chance" he'll stick with the choice.[319]
In January 2024, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that Trump had approached him to be his running mate and that he had refused the offer.[320] Trump campaign advisor Chris LaCivita denied that the Trump campaign had ever approached Kennedy to be Trump's running mate, however, and added that they had no plans on ever doing so.[321] In April, multiple sources close to Trump once again reported that he was considering Kennedy.[317]
Support
Politico noted in December 2020 that many Republican figures were expressing support for a Trump 2024 run, quoting Missouri Senator Josh Hawley as saying "If he were to run in 2024, I think he would be the nominee. And I would support him doing that."[330] National public opinion polling showed Trump quickly dominating the field of potential 2024 Republican candidates. Utah Senator Mitt Romney, though opposed to Trump, stated in February 2021 that if Trump ran in 2024, he would win the Republican nomination in a landslide.[331] The same month, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he would "absolutely" support Trump if the latter was nominated again.[332]
In April 2022, American intelligence officials assessed that Russia intended to exact revenge on the Biden administration for its sanctions against Russia and aid for Ukraine by intervening in the election on Trump's behalf. A Russian state TV host, Evgeny Popov, said in March 2020, "to again help our partner Trump to become president".[333]