Trump makes it official, will run in 2024

Donald Trump announced his third bid for the White House on Tuesday night — a day after his Republican Party narrowly won the House while Democrats kept control of the Senate in midterm elections — as he faces growing criticism and challenges within the GOP.

The 45th president painted a grim picture of conditions in the country when he made the announcement 20 minutes into a 9 pm speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

"In order to make American great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States," Trump said in the resort's ornate ballroom.

He made the announcement despite several prominent party members urging him to wait until after all midterms were over and then until after the Dec 6 Senate runoff in Georgia.

"In four short years, everyone was doing great: men, women, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans," Trump said of his term in office.

"Inflation was nonexistent, our southern border was the strongest ever," he said. "The United States had finally obtained the impossible dream of energy independence."

Trump also referred to "blood-soaked streets" in American cities.

He also criticized the deadly US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, and of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, he said it "never would have happened" if he were still president.

Trump said President Joe Biden is "leading us to the brink of nuclear war" and frequently referred to "radical left" Democrats and human and drug trafficking at the southern border.

During the speech, Biden's Twitter account said," Donald Trump failed America," and included scenes from the Jan 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Just one president in US history has been elected to two nonconsecutive terms: Grover Cleveland in 1884; after being defeated in 1888, he rebounded in 1892.

Trump is expected to face challenges for the GOP nomination, most likely from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the leading current alternative to Trump who has drawn the former president's ire by positioning himself as a 2024 alternative though he hasn't announced if he will run.

Other possible candidates include former vice-president Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Earlier Tuesday, DeSantis basically shrugged off the ex-president's recent criticisms and pointed to the results of the midterm election, which saw him win Florida in a landslide while Trump-endorsed candidates lost key races for governor and the Senate across the country.

"At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night," DeSantis said.

CNN reported Tuesday that a growing group of the wealthiest Republican donors are backing GOP presidential contenders including DeSantis and Youngkin for 2024, blaming Trump for the party's lackluster performance in the midterms last week.

Asked whether she would endorse Trump in 2024, Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told reporters Monday: "I don't think that's the right question. I think the question is, who is the current leader of the Republican Party?"

Asked who that was, she replied: "Ron DeSantis."

Amy Tarkanian, a former Nevada GOP chair who backed Trump in 2016 and 2020, is now calling on the former president to clear the path for a new wave of leaders.

"People are ready for a statesman, someone who has the policies that he implemented but with a much different tone and demeanor," she said.

Several post-midterm polls have shown DeSantis surging ahead of Trump as the 2024 frontrunner.

A new YouGov survey of 413 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents found that 42 percent want DeSantis to be the party's 2024 presidential nominee, while 35 percent would prefer Trump. The same poll conducted in mid-October found Trump with 45 percent support, leading DeSantis by 10 points. DeSantis led Trump by 11 points in a new poll of likely Republican primary voters by the Republican Party of Texas.

Though he still maintains an iron grip on his MAGA — "Make America Great Again" — base, some Republicans in battleground states and elsewhere are doing the once unthinkable: casting blame toward Trump, citing his choices for midterm elections who lost in the Senate, gubernatorial and secretary state races.

In Illinois, Jim Durkin, the longtime state House GOP leader who decided to step down after last week's results were worse than expected, said "Trump stopped the wave" and is "squarely in the blame" for losses nationwide.

"Trump will say we're a bunch of RINOs," Durkin said, referring to the pejoratively used acronym for "Republicans in name only"

"No, we're Republicans that want to win races," he said.

Trump has tried to blame Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for the GOP's performance, while McConnell's allies have criticized Rick Scott, the Florida senator who heads the Senate Republicans' campaign committee.

Scott said Tuesday he will challenge the Kentucky senator for minority leader.

"I think the outcome is pretty clear. I want to repeat again: I have the votes. I will be elected," McConnell said Tuesday.

Not everyone is blaming Trump for midterm losses. He has the backing of the No 3 House Republican, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, and J.D. Vance, a Trump-endorsed Republican who won a Senate race in Ohio.

Heng Weili in New York contributed to this story.