Donald Trump shared a bizarre video depicting himself as a “superhero” on his social media platform Truth Social in which he teased a “major announcement”.
“America needs a superhero,” Mr Trump says in the footage before an animated image of him wearing a superhero outfit with the letter “T” on his chest appears as beams of light stream from his eyes.
On Thursday, Mr Trump revealed that he is selling digital trading cards of himself.
The announcement comes after Mr Trump failed to gain traction with his 2024 presidential campaign announcement last month, with a recent poll showing him 23 points behind Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Truth Social post on Wednesday didn’t give any hints about what Mr Trump would announce.
In the past, the former president has postponed announcements on very short notice and he has boosted minor events, attempting to garner more attention. That is exactly what happened in this instance.
The announcement comes as GOP voters appear to be less interested in voting for Mr Trump, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll.
The survey included 1,500 participants, among which Mr Trump was behind Mr DeSantis – 52 per cent versus 38 per cent. The voters identified themselves as likely to vote in a GOP primary in 2024.
Among registered voters, 43 per cent said they hold a favourable view of Mr DeSantis while 36 per cent hold that view of Mr Trump.
Almost three-quarters of GOP voters still see Mr Trump favourably, but since March the number of Republicans with an unfavourable view of him has risen 10 points, from 13 to 23 per cent.
The downward trend of Mr Trump’s poll results could be a result of some voters souring on him after his chosen candidates in races for senate and governor performed worse than expected in last month’s midterms.
Mr Trump is currently the only candidate to have announced a 2024 campaign, but Mr DeSantis is expected to run, as are a number of other Republicans.
President Joe Biden has said that he plans to run again despite concerns within the Democratic Party about his age.
Mr Trump’s announcement also comes in the wake of the verdict against the Trump Organization, which has been found guilty of criminal tax fraud.
An unnamed juror spoke to The Daily Beast, saying that they referred to Mr Trump as “Joe Smith” during deliberations to avoid feelings of bias.
“I constantly fought my knee-jerk belief that of course anything with the name Trump on it is crooked,” the juror said.
