Usa, Donald Trump is re-nominated for the third time for the White House – Corriere.it

From our correspondent

NEW YORK “To make America great and glorious again, I announce tonight that I am running for President of the United States of America”proclaims Donald Trump. It’s the “big announcement” he’s been meaning to make for some time. He had been persuaded to wait the end of the midterm elections and refused to wait any longer after the Senate runoff in Georgia. Her lawyers yesterday presented the official documents for renomination for the Republican nomination for 2024.

And Trump speaks from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the FBI recovered top secret documents last summer that the former president had taken from the White House. At her side is not her daughter Ivanka, who writes on Twitter: “I love my father very much. This time, I have chosen to prioritize my children and the privacy of my family life. I have no plans to get involved in politics.” Also absent Donald Jr, because he was hunting and missed a flight due to bad weather, according to the TV ABCbut he will participate in his father’s election campaign.

“China played a very active role in the 2020 election”says the former president. But otherwise he avoids focusing on the usual accusations of fraud, apart from promising to eliminate all forms of early voting and all electronic machines: “Only paper ballots”. His advisers and allies urged him to stake about the future in his speech, following the defeat of several denial candidates in the midterm elections.

Trump prefers not to dwell on lost challenges (the most competitive ones for the Senate and the seats of governors) and claims that the media do not report the numbers correctly: of its candidates “232 won and only 32 lost”, the House of Representatives was retaken (“despite a long wait, things you don’t even see in Third World countries”), “Nancy Pelosi has been fired and is flying to another country” (a reference to the rumors about the position of ambassador in Rome even if yesterday the spokesman of the speaker of the Chamber said that in any case Pelosi will remain in Congress).

At one point Trump admits that “Republicans could have done better” in these elections, he explains it thus: “People do not yet fully feel the gravity of the situation, the effects of suffering are starting to be felt, certainly in 2024 they will be greater and also the vote will be very different”. The hour-long speech focuses on his own achievements (“even better than Ronald Reagan”) and on the failures attributed to the Biden administration (“the invasion on the border”, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine, which with Trump in the White House “would not have happened”). “A missile was probably launched by Russia into Polish territory 50 miles from the borderit is absolutely insane”, says the former president, who then accuses his successor of pushing the United States “to the brink of nuclear war”. “A speech tired and without the energy of his descent into the field in 2016”, say his critics abouta Cnn. “A very serious and powerful speech,” says Sean Hannity on Fox News. And the guests of him: “He is the original, even if others will try to emulate him”; “If he continues like this tonight he is unbeatable, among Republicans and among Democrats.” “Our comeback begins now,” promised the former president.

“His political resurgence must be rejected by the Americans”writes the New York Times in an editorial titled “Enough,” urging Republicans “to fight for the soul of their party” and noting that “some notable figures — including former Vice President Mike Pence, Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Governor Ron DeSantis of the Florida, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott of North Carolina and Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire among others – demonstrated respect for the rule of law and ability to govern”.

Trump is in a moment of greatest vulnerabilitygiven the criticisms received by many Republican politicians and by the Rupert Murdoch empire’s own media. The urgency of his candidacy stems from the desire to precede rivals like DeSantis (and others) in the nomination, but also to act before a possible indictment linked to the multiple investigations against him. Only once in American history has a former president won a second term at the second attempt: New York Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1892 (was the 22nd and 24th president).

The candidacy of the 76-year-old tycoon increases the likelihood that Biden will also take the fieldwho last night tweeted from his personal profile during the speech: “Donald Trump was a failure for America”. The current president, who turns 80 on Nov. 20, said he would decide on 2024 probably by early next year. Both have low approval rates. Trump has a strong following among voters registered as Republicans (77%) but only 30% popularity among independents. CNN showed last night a poll conducted in October according to which, if the 2020 challenge for president returns with the same candidates in two years, 43% of voters would choose Trump, 42% Biden.