Donald Trump has announced his presidential run for 2024 in a rambling, hour-long speech that was so “low-energy” and “uninspiring” – as one former Trump aide described it – that Fox News cut away mid-speech.
Trump pressed ahead with the announcement despite a Republican backlash that blames the former president for the party’s poor showing at last week’s midterms. Further tumult in US politics is all but guaranteed, but more importantly, a tense Republican primary season awaits as party heavyweights and Rupert Murdoch abandon Trump in favour of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. Will Trump’s base jump on the DeSantis bandwagon too?