Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States who served from 2017 to 2021, announced his campaign for a non-consecutive second presidential term in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on November 15, 2022.
After his loss in the 2020 United States presidential election, Trump and his allies in seven key states 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. 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." 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." Later, a group of Trump's supporters attacked the United States Capitol building to prevent the election results from being certified.
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. 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. 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, while others opposed it, citing negative effects it could have on U.S. democracy. Some Republicans, consisting mostly of Trump loyalists, welcomed the campaign, while others (including many Republican elected officials) opposed it, viewing Trump as a weak and beatable candidate who had cost the Republicans the past several election cycles.
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. 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. Trump called his indictment political persecution and election interference. 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. 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. Trump said that he will appeal the decision, describing it to be "unconstitutional silencing" and "political persecution."
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 7 million votes. He refused to concede the loss and claimed that the election was stolen. 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.
In the days before the end of his term in January 2021, Trump began discussing the possibility of forming a third party, to be called the "Patriot Party", to contest the election against both Democratic and Republican candidates. Spokespersons for Trump later denied that he had such plans.