Former president Donald Trump on Monday ended an hours-long rehashing of old grievances at a rally for Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance without announcing his intention to run for president in 2024.
The twice-impeached ex-president failed to declare his candidacy for a presidential election that won’t happen for another two years despite allies and confidantes spending most of the day before the 2022 midterm elections stoking rumours and hyping a possible 2024 announcement from Mr Trump.
One staunch ally of the ex-president, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, even took to Twitter to encourage Mr Trump to pull the trigger on a third presidential run, writing: “Trump should announce tonight.”
“His candidates won the primaries,” he said. “Trump deserves all the credit for this wave election [and] announcing tonight he will seize it.”
But just 24 hours after he told rallygoers in Florida to “stay tuned to tomorrow night in the great state of Ohio,” Mr Trump ended his appearance at Dayton International Airport without making any statement about his intentions for the 2024 election.
The former president had been teasing a potential 2024 run in earnest during his most recent political rallies, even to the point of including a section of remarks which consists of him reading off poll results which purportedly put him ahead of possible GOP primary rivals, as well as the man who bested him in the 2020 election, President Joe Biden.
But even after multiple Trump confidantes teased an announcement to reporters, he failed to follow through, ending his 90-minute address with a now-familiar list of complaints about the country he once led, set to music associated with the QAnon conspiracy movement that he has openly courted in recent months — and a promise to make the actual announcement on 15 November.
“Not to detract from tomorrow's very important, even critical election — and I would say in the strongest way it's a country saving election ... I'm going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, November 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida,” he said.
Mr Trump’s lack of a 2024 kickoff announcement is most likely leading his fellow Republicans to breathe a sigh of relief, as many in the GOP have said they’d prefer to keep the focus of Tuesday’s midterm elections on Mr Biden and his policies.
