By Alex P. Vidal
“The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.”—Maimonides
LIKE many people in America today, we’re also excited to see the blockbuster rematch between two famous senior citizens in modern American politics.
It appears to be inevitable now that grandfather Donald Trump has officially launched his 2024 presidential bid.
I also don’t agree when both Trump’s critics and the liberal commentators throw roadblocks on his comeback bid especially if there’s no law that prohibits his candidacy.
Watching Trump speak on TV “live” on Tuesday (November 15) night, I had a hunch he would blitz his way in the GOP primaries and clinch the party nomination if two to four other contenders stood on his way.
So far, his biggest “obstacle” is Ron DeSantis, the wily 44-year-old Florida governor, who recently won a reelection with a wide margin.
The announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida that he was running for president in November 2024, brought Trump, 76, closer to a rubber match versus fellow grandfather, President Joseph Biden, 80.
He laid out an aggressively conservative agenda that includes executing people convicted of dealing drugs, something that is unheard of in the president administration.
It will be Trump’s third run for president (1 win, 1 loss), but his first time trying to persuade voters since his refusal to accept the 2020 presidential election results and his frantic effort to stay in power led to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Slamming President Biden’s record in his first two years in the White House in a speech at his Florida private club, Trump quipped: “We are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation for millions of Americans. I will ensure Joe Biden does not receive four more years.”
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The former president, now facing a myriad of criminal investigations, filed papers with the Federal Election Commission earlier Tuesday night in which he declared himself a candidate for the presidency and established a new campaign committee.
He declared: “This campaign will be about issues, vision and success, and we will not stop, we will not quit, until we’ve achieved the highest goals and made our country greater than it has ever been before.”
His toned-down speech echoed his 2016 campaign speeches in many ways, painting a dystopian picture of America as a failing nation ravaged by violent crime during “a time of pain, hardship, anxiety and despair.”
Calling for a “top-to-bottom overhaul and clean out of the festering rot and corruption of Washington, D.C., Trump said the “gravest threat to our civilization” was what he called the weaponization of the Justice Department and the FBI, which are currently investigating his handling of classified documents, as well as his role in a massive effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and prevent Congress from certifying President Biden’s victory.
He has rejected the counsel of current and former advisers who had warned him against declaring himself a candidate for president anew so soon after a dismal result in the midterm elections where most of his handpicked candidates, election deniers like him, lost miserably.
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CNBC reported that Trump’s filing with the F.E.C. created the Donald J. Trump for President 2024, and officially launched the 2024 Republican presidential primary, a contest where the dynamics have shifted dramatically in the past week.
Trump was the undisputed frontrunner in his party’s nominating contest, with polls showing the former president’s support among Republican voters averaging more than 20 percentage points over his closest rival, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, CNBC reported.
But that was before DeSantis won reelection by an extraordinary 19-point margin, electrifying Republicans nationwide and offering the party a bright spot on a day when Democrats won most of the major Senate and governors’ races.
Trump is still the undisputed leader of the Republican party, however. This week, the Washington Post reported that Trump plans to build a campaign team that looks and feels more like the skeleton crew of loyal aides who ran his successful 2016 run, and less like the massive operation that his failed 2020 reelection bid grew into.
Trump enters the race reportedly with more than $60 million in cash held by his leadership PAC, Save America, and a prodigious fundraising operation that vacuums up small-dollar donations at an unprecedented rate.
Federal Election Commission rules prohibit Trump from using the leadership PAC money to directly finance his presidential campaign.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)
