Donald Trump is set to launch a new bid for the White House on Tuesday, hoping to shut out potential Republican challengers and return his false allegations of voter fraud to the center of US politics. Trump’s announcement, scheduled for 9 p.m. ET (02:00 GMT Wednesday) at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, following a disappointing showing in last week’s midterm congressional elections that many Republicans blame on him. The unusually early launch may well be aimed at fending off potential challengers for the party’s 2024 nomination, including rising star Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis, 44, and Trump’s own former vice president, Mike Pence, 63. Sources close to Trump, 76, said he planned to push forward despite mixed results from his endorsements this year, with losses to celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Don Bolduc in New Hampshire contributing to the Republican’s failure to win the majority in the US Senate. . Another candidate handpicked by Trump, former football star Herschel Walker, was forced into a Dec. 6 runoff in his Georgia race against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. That has raised some concerns that Trump’s announcement could again hurt the party’s chances in a Georgia runoff similar to the January 2021 runoff that gave Democrats their current majority. Many Trump-aligned candidates who ran on platforms centered on his false claims of widespread voter fraud were also defeated. While Republicans were closing in on potential control of the House of Representatives, the “red wave” that Republicans expected would carry them to a large majority failed to materialize despite Democratic President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings. Voter outrage over a Supreme Court ruling ending national abortion rights offset concerns about high inflation. “This should have been a huge red wave … and yet we underperformed,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican who has toyed with the idea of ​​launching his own White House campaign. “This is the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race … I’m tired of losing,” he told CNN on Sunday. Conservative columnist Marc Thiessen, who has praised a number of Trump policies while in office, urged him not to run again on Tuesday, saying voters on Nov. 8 clearly rejected Trump-backed candidates and gave Democrats the majority in the US Senate. “This should be a wake-up call for Trump. He cannot win the presidency on his base alone,” wrote Thiessen, a former chief speechwriter for Republican President George W. Bush. “His behavior since losing office has made him unelectable.” A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken before the election found that 53% of Americans and nearly one in four Republicans view Trump unfavorably. The poll showed a similar number of Americans view Biden unfavorably. Trump plans to launch his campaign nearly two years before the Nov. 5, 2024, election despite those concerns, two sources familiar with his plans said. “President Donald J. Trump and his team are firing on all cylinders and fully focused on saving our country,” said one source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. DeSantis, whom Trump has given the derisive nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious,” easily won re-election last week. Pence will release a book on Tuesday detailing Trump’s failed lobbying campaign to overturn his 2020 defeat.

Trump will seek his party’s nomination despite facing problems on several fronts, including a criminal investigation into the removal of classified documents from the White House as well as a congressional subpoena related to his role in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 by his supporters. Trump has characterized the various investigations he faces as politically motivated and denies wrongdoing. The businessman-turned-politician, who has tried to maintain an iron grip on the Republican Party since leaving office, has persisted in making false claims that the 2020 election he lost to Biden was stolen through widespread fraud. Trump is seeking to become only the second US president in history to serve non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland, whose second term ended in 1897. Biden, 79, has said he plans to run for re-election for a second term his four-year term, although he has not yet made a final decision. During his tumultuous 2017-2021 presidency, Trump flouted democratic norms and promoted “America First” nationalism while portraying himself as a right-wing populist. He became the first US president to be impeached twice, although congressional Democrats failed in their efforts to remove him from office. At a rally before the Capitol attack, Trump urged supporters to “fight like hell” and march on Congress to “stop the theft,” but the mob that then stormed the Capitol failed to stop Congress from officially certify Biden’s electoral victory. Five people died in the riots. Although judges and state election officials have rejected Trump’s fraudulent election claims, about two-thirds of Republican voters believe Biden’s victory was illegitimate, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Steve Holland. Editing by Scott Malone, Howard Goller, William Maclean