PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump is expected to launch a 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday night from his palatial Mar-a-Lago resort — just one week after disappointing midterm election results cast doubt on his viability to clinch a second non-consecutive term in office.
Trump, 76, will host hundreds of supporters and throngs of journalists at Mar-a-Lago for the widely watched announcement, which he booked before his handpicked candidates struggled or lost in many key battleground races last week.
The former president’s 9 p.m. address will lay out his vision to double down on policies he enacted during his four years in office while reversing the actions of his successor, Joe Biden, who says he also plans to run again in 2024, despite turning 80 on Nov. 20.
The particulars of Trump’s announcement remain unclear — though he regularly reminisces about the famous image of himself coming down the escalator of New York’s Trump Tower in 2015 with his wife Melania to launch what was then a long-shot campaign.
Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballroom was set up for Trump’s announcement with two large digital screens — bearing the slogan “Make America Great Again” — flanking the former president’s podium.
Trump’s staff positioned about 500 gold-painted chairs for his supporters. A large platform for TV cameras and photographers walled off desks for more than 100 reporters at the rear of the ballroom.
Former White House budget director Russ Vought, one of Trump’s guests, told The Post ahead of the event that “I think it’s going to be a scrappy campaign that has a lot of the feel of the 2016 campaign — he has got fire in the belly. He’s got unfinished business.”
“I think he’s going to be in fighting shape.” Vought added of his former boss. “He knows and feels the extent to which the country is hurting and I think he’s restless — he was restless every day in the White House to be on offense for the American people and I think you’re going to see that today”
If Trump wins in 2024, Vought went on, “from day one he will know how to put his hand in the glove and wield as much power within the federal government as possible and I think he will have a staff and an administration of like-minded individuals.”
Vought also argued that Trump doesn’t bear blame for unsuccessful Republican midterm candidates — claiming that some GOP Senate primary candidates who Trump passed over may have fared even worse.
Another guest, former acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker, told The Post, “I’m expecting classic Trump. If you’ve been to his rallies, you know he’s going to have a great level of enthusiasm and have a prescription for a lot of the challenges our country faces.”
“I think the early Trump years were marked by maybe some staff that wasn’t up to the challenge and he kept trying to find the right people and put them in the right spots,” Whitaker added. “I think he finally hit his stride as he headed from ’19 to ’20. I think he’s going to have some great people identified and I think he’s going to be in a position from day one to drive the thing forward.”
Whitaker went on to say about a potential contested primary: “There’s no reason to expect that he will be unopposed, but at the same time I’m really excited … this is going to be one of those seasons to not miss.”
At least one member of Congress, outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) was present — after one of the few expected lawmakers, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) gave the event a miss due to a scheduling conflict with House GOP leadership votes.
Staunch Trump backer Mike Lindell, the CEO of My PIllow, told The Post inside the ballroom that “I think the president is going to give a great message of hope — we all obviously hope that he’s announcing he’s running” and that he still considers Trump “our real president.”
Outside Mar-a-Lago, several dozen Trump supporters waved flags and blasted the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister on the bridge to Palm Beach that overlooks the resort — with some cars and trucks honking in approval.
A Trump campaign-poster-adorned RV cruised through the streets of the elite enclave, as did a motorcycle with a “Let’s Go Brandon” flag, using the anti-Biden saying that means “F–k Joe Biden.” The more vulgar version also was on a flag outside the estate.
Before nightfall, however, a few planes flew overhead dragging banners with anti-Trump messages such as “3X BIGLY LOSER” and “YOU LOST AGAIN DONALD! #DESANTIS2024.” It’s unclear who paid for the counterprogramming.
As in the 2016 election, Trump enters the race against steep odds as Republicans warm to potential rivals like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and as President Biden is on the political mend thanks to strong Democratic showings in the midterms in spite of relatively low approval ratings and economic anxiety over the highest sustained inflation since the early 1980s, as well as a possible recession next year.
Sources told The Post that Trump’s campaign will be led initially by Susie Wiles, who has spearheaded Trump’s political operation since last year, and Chris LaCivita, who leads the pro-Trump super PAC Preserve America.
Wiles formerly ran DeSantis’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign. The 44-year-old governor is one of Trump’s chief potential competitors for the Republican nomination, according to polling, and won re-election last week by a crushing 19.4 percentage points over Democrat Charlie Crist.
Trump’s former White House political director Brian Jack also is expected to play a key role in Trump’s campaign, sources said, as is longtime Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn.
Jack is a veteran of the 2016 Trump campaign and currently runs House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s national political operation. McCarthy (R-Calif.) is favored to become House speaker next year.
Trump fans outside Mar-a-Lago said Tuesday that they are convinced he can win back the White House.
Denise Mulderig, 70, a Palm Beach resident originally from New Jersey, said that DeSantis, 44, is a “nice man” but “cannot fill Donald Trump’s shoes” and is “too young.” She blamed Republican woes in the midterms on the Supreme Court’s June decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
“I used to be a Biden fan… but ever since Donald Trump ran — when he ran, that’s the day I turned to Republican,” Mulderig said, clarifying, “I never really classified myself as Democrat or Republican. I vote for the man, not the party.”
“There’s nobody like him,” she said of Trump. “He’s been counted out before — since they came down the escalator [in 2015]… I don’t think anyone could touch him as far as brains, know-how, talking with people and just handling the problems.”
Derek Arnold, 51, stood outside Mar-a-Lago wearing a graphic T-shirt with Trump’s face and the message “Turn The Other Cheek — Hell, I Kick Ass!”
Arnold told The Post that “I never voted in my life” but that he’s likely to register to do so in New Hampshire if Trump runs again in 2024.
“He speaks a message of common sense,” Arnold said. “As far as I’m concerned, Donald Trump is my president and Donald Trump is my commander-in-chief and if he does go on the ballot in ’24 and we have fair and free elections, machines gone, in-person voting… then I will register to vote and I will go vote for that man.”
Trump announced the Mar-a-Lago event Nov. 7 during an Ohio rally for victorious Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance — after telling some allies he was considering announcing his bid at the rally as a tactic to claim credit for expected GOP election gains.
The campaign launch is moving ahead despite many of Trump’s handpicked candidates flaming out in the midterm elections, in which Democrats retained control of the Senate, with Republicans expected to retake the House by a much smaller margin than anticipated.
Trump-backed Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz lost his Pennsylvania Senate race to Democrat John Fetterman, giving Democrats a bonus seat in a crucial battleground state, where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Another Trump-backed candidate faltered in Georgia, where Republican Herschel Walker trails Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. That race will be decided in a runoff election next month Dec. 6.
Trump would be the second president to win non-consecutive terms after Democrat Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s. He’ll launch his bid amid a series of investigations that could result in unprecedented criminal charges against a former president.
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and said it recovered caches of classified records that were improperly moved to Florida last year. The Justice Department reportedly is also investigating Trump’s role in an effort to present rival slates of presidential electors in states that Biden won in 2020.
Trump accuses investigators of pursuing a long-running “witch hunt” that began with the FBI’s investigation of his 2016 campaign’s possible collusion with Russia. That probe ended more than halfway through Trump’s term without turning up evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
Trump’s victory over Clinton was sealed through upset victories across Midwestern states including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which voted for Biden in 2020 alongside Arizona and Georgia, which Trump also won in 2016. The COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacted the 2020 election, driving record voter participation through mail-in voting.
Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice — first in 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden’s $1 million-per-year job at energy company Burisma and again in 2021 for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol that disrupted certification of Biden’s victory. The Senate acquitted him both times, allowing him to hold office again.
