The midterms proved to be not so important to Trump…all his chest thumping really did not help the candidates.

Donald Trump is expected to launch his 2024 reelection campaign Tuesday night, and conventional wisdom has him battling political headwinds. The former president is being blamed for the GOP’s lackluster showing in the midterms, and rival Ron DeSantis is on the ascent. But in a New York Times essay, Kevin D. Williams writes that Trump “is not as weak a candidate as many people might expect—or hope—him to be.” Williams, for the record, is not a Trump fan and thinks another presidency would be bad for the nation. But he also thinks that Trump remains the favorite to win the GOP nomination and thus has a decent chance of becoming president again.

“It will not be easy to dislodge Mr. Trump,” writes Williams. “His bond with his supporters is personal—it is based on the promise of humiliating the right’s cultural enemies, not on policy, and it is not limited by transitory events like a disappointing midterm showing.” And if the Republican party is a “mess” at the moment, that actually helps Trump instead of hurting him. It “is when Republicans are at their lowest political ebb—when they are feeling the most vulnerable, victimized, and marginalized—that Mr. Trump is at his political best,” he writes.

AS expected the Orange man has made it official….he will run again…..

He’s in. Former President Trump launched his 2024 reelection campaign Tuesday night during a speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump told his supporters. (See the moment via the National Review.) If Trump manages to get reelected, he would become only the second president to win non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892, per the AP. He also becomes only the fifth president to run for reelection after a loss, notes Politico. Just before the rally began Tuesday night, CNN reported that Trump had filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run.

• “I am running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be,” Trump said. “We will again put America first.”
• “There has never been anything like it, this great movement of ours. … And perhaps there will never be anything like it again,” Trump said. “America’s comeback starts right now.”
• He faulted President Biden for the “decline of America” and accused Biden of “leading us to the brink of nuclear war” with Russia, per Axios.
• “The citizens of our country haven’t realized the full gravity of the pain our nation is going through, and the total effect of the suffering is just starting to take hold,” he said, addressing the results of the midterm elections, in which Republicans fared worse than expected.

The assessment at Politico: “It is an extraordinary—although long anticipated—move for Trump, one certain to reshape his party’s trajectory, raise complicated legal questions and alter the presidency for the man who defeated him, Joe Biden.” The move comes with Trump’s critics blaming him for the GOP’s underwhelming performance in the midterms and amid several investigations of both Trump personally and his business empire, notes the AP. Still, he is widely seen as the automatic frontrunner over potential rivals such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

With that announcement how do people react?

As expected, Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he is mounting a 2024 presidential campaign. The word “lies” could be found in multiple articles about his announcement speech, with Mark Z. Barabak at the Los Angeles Times referring to the “yeasty mix of hyperbole, lies and grievance” permeating it. He notes that Trump suggested that the Chinese government meddled in the last election, causing his defeat. A fact-checking article at CNN finds a number of “false and misleading claims” on subjects including the border wall, gas prices, sea level rise, the strategic petroleum reserve, and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. See its full list here. More reaction and follow-up pieces around Trump’s announcement:

Fox News host Sean Hannity “welcomed” the 2024 announcement, while others in the Murdoch media empire had a more measured response or pushed back entirely, Reuters reports. On Monday, for example, the Wall Street Journal editorial board opposed another Trump bid for the presidency. See Reuters’ roundup here, a CNN video roundup of conservative pundits who have urged Trump not to run here, or a CNN piece from before Trump’s speech about skeptical House and Senate Republicans here.

• But there were plenty praising Trump’s speech, Fox News reports. From Lindsey Graham: “If President Trump continues this tone and delivers this message on a consistent basis, he will be hard to beat.” Mike Huckabee echoed that: “Trump got his mojo back tonight. He focused on the American people and the future, not the past. If he stays on this path, he’s unbeatable.” Ted Cruz and Ronny Jackson were among others supporting him after the speech.
• Reuters also rounds up reactions to Trump’s announcement from others, including a number of analysts, here. More than one of them point to the poor showing by Trump-endorsed candidates in the midterm elections as a concern for Republicans.
• Not surprisingly, Democrats were quickly painting Trump as unfit for office, the Hill reports; President Biden released a video while Trump was still making his speech accusing Trump of “failing America.” More on Dem reaction at the Hill.
• Prior to the speech, Politico ran a piece calling Kari Lake’s loss in the Arizona gubernatorial race a “bad omen” for Trump. “Lake—the closest approximation to Trump running anywhere this cycle—became proof of the limitations of his grievance politics,” writes David Siders. Full article here.
• Does Trump have a new slogan? He said he wanted to “make America great and glorious again” in his speech, leading many to make MAGAGA jokes on Twitter.

With that announcement of his return to the campaign trail the media will have all the fodder they need for the next two years.

And that includes me.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”