After teasing a "big announcement" that sparked a flurry of speculation last week, Donald Trump has declared his intention to run for president in 2024.
The business mogul today announced his third tilt for the top job from a makeshift stage in a packed ballroom inside his lavish Mar-a-Lago resort.
"2024 … Are you getting ready?" he asked the cheering crowd, halfway through a 63-minute speech.
"I am too."
The opulent club has been a central location throughout Trump's business career, dubbed the "Winter White House" after becoming a meeting spot for Republican allies and foreign leaders during his presidency.
So it was a fitting backdrop for his renewed promise to "make America great again".
In a meandering speech, Trump took aim at his Democrat rival Joe Biden, claimed credit for the Republicans winning back the House in the midterm elections, and skirted around false claims of election fraud in 2020.
These were the key moments from today's announcement.
He wants his 2024 campaign to be a crowd movement
Trump used his speech to paint a picture of an America in decline under Biden, and in need of saving.
He denounced foreign threats and migrants, while describing American cities as crime-ridden "cesspools of blood", telling the crowd: "America's comeback starts right now."
"We are coming to take those corridors [of power] back," he told supporters.
"So from now until election day in 2024, which will come very quickly … I will fight like no-one has ever fought before."
He pitched his campaign at families struggling with soaring costs and unable to find a "turkey at Thanksgiving".
He told his supporters "we've always known this was not the end", but appeared to contradict himself later by suggesting he could have chosen not to run.
"I didn't need this, I had a very nice easy life. A lot of you people don't need it … but we need to save our country," he said.
Trump has framed the 2024 campaign as a task for millions of people, a "great movement", not just "for any one individual".
"This will not be my campaign. This will be our campaign because the only force strong enough to defeat the massive corruption we are up against is you, the American people, the greatest people on Earth," he said.
Trump claims credit for Republicans winning back the House
The former president took the opportunity to put his own spin on the Republicans' performance at the midterm elections last week.
His first item on the agenda was claiming credit for the Republicans' gains in the House of Representatives.
"Despite a ridiculously long and unnecessary period of waiting … just a short time ago the Republicans won back control of the House of Representatives. And it was with a great Trump-endorsed candidate, Kevin Kiley," he said.
AP has not yet declared the race, but Trump's pick for the California 3rd district has declared victory, delivering Republicans their 218th seat, and control of the chamber.
"Kevin is a fantastic person, and I'm very happy it was his vote that did it," Trump said.
He also tried to distance himself from earlier predictions that the midterms would deliver "a big red wave" that would see Republicans flip dozens of seats and take back the Senate as well.
"I told [the Republican Party] to have a lower standard, if you win by two seats, be happy," he said, with only a passing mention to the Senate, where Democrats have retained control.
While Trump claimed an "endorsement success rate [of] 232 wins and only 22 losses", several outlets that have tracked his endorsements throughout the campaign have demonstrated this is not the full picture.
The Washington Post reported that Trump-endorsed candidates underperformed in competitive House seats, and some of those running in safe Republican seats did not do as well as expected.
Just one of the candidates he backed in crucial Senate races was successful, Ohio's JD Vance, while Herschel Walker is headed to a run-off election in Georgia.
No direct mentions of the 'Big Lie' or the Jan 6 insurrection
In a departure from the rhetoric he has peddled since 2020, Trump made no direct claims about the presidency being "stolen" from him, nor of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Trump-backed candidates largely followed his lead in campaigning on a platform of election denial, and cast doubt on the security of early voting and mail-in ballots.
Arizona's Republican candidate Kari Lake, who lost to incumbent Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs, foreshadowed that she would only accept election results that delivered her a win, and is said to be considering mounting a legal challenge.
Last week, Trump shared several false claims of voter fraud in the midterms on his social media platforms, but the references in his announcement speech were more vague.
He promised widespread changes to electoral law, to crack down on "cheating".
"We will do whatever it takes to bring back honesty, confidence and trust in our elections. To eliminate cheating, I will immediately demand voter ID, same-day voting, and only paper ballots," he said.
And in a familiar refrain, seemingly repeating his false claim that he won a second term in 2020 election, he added:
"We did it twice, and we'll do it again but this time we'll do it better, stronger than anybody can even imagine."
Trump attacks Democrats but avoids criticising Republican rivals
As expected, Trump was quick to attack Biden, describing him as a president "who falls asleep at global conferences" and "was held in contempt in (the) British parliament over Afghanistan".
He promised his voters that his Democrat rival would not return to office.
"I will ensure Joe Biden does not receive four more years in 2020. Our country could not take that and I say that not in laughter, but in tears," he said.
He also took a moment to single out the outgoing Democratic speaker of the House.
"Nancy Pelosi has been fired, isn't that nice?" Trump told the crowd.
Pelosi is expected to retain her party leadership position and become minority House leader if Republicans take back control of the chamber, as expected.
Observers were also waiting to see if Trump would mention any of his potential Republican challengers for the top job, but the former president avoided mentioning them.
Some of Trump's closest allies told CNN ahead of the announcement that Republicans "should brace for a significant escalation in his attacks on rumoured GOP challengers once he is a declared presidential contender".
"No-one's going to get a free pass. It's going to be brutal," one adviser suggested.
But Ron DeSantis's name was not uttered once, despite Trump recently stepping up his scathing attacks on the man seen as his leading rival.
Mike Pence, Liz Cheney and other potential challengers were also not named.
Trump faces missing from the crowd
Trump took a moment to reference the toll his public life has taken on his own family, singling out his son, Eric, and wife Melania, during his speech.
The New York Times, citing several people familiar with the discussions, reported last week the former president had blamed Melania, along with several other people, for the Republicans' poor mid-term election result.
Today he acknowledged that "it hasn't been a joy ride for our great first lady".
"I go home … and she says, 'you look angry and upset,' and I tell her, 'Just leave me alone, I got this,'" Trump said.
"Hasn't been easy, but she's been a great first lady and people love her."
He also referenced the family's recent legal troubles, claiming Eric Trump had been issued with the "most subpoenas in the history of the US".
"I appreciate the job you do and the abuse that you've taken, I really do," he said.
It comes amid rumours of a split within the Trump family over the former president's decision to run again.
Trump's son Donald Trump Jr, as well as his daughter Ivanka, both missed today's big event.
Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, who was among his closest advisers in the White House, did attend the event, although he did not get a shout-out.
People familiar with the couple have told CNN the husband and wife team are "done" with Washington and that hasn't changed.
Ivanka does not plan to be involved in politics, according to a statement, while her brother Donald Trump Jr's absence appeared to be because of a scheduling mix-up.
