Same gripes, new campaign
Trump launches 2020 bid with attacks on Hillary Clinton and ‘fake news media’
Jabbing at the press and poking the eye of the political establishment he ran against in 2016, President Donald Trump officially kicked off his re-election campaign yesterday with a grievance-filled Florida rally that focused more on settling scores than laying out his agenda for a second term.
Addressing a crowd of thousands
at Orlando’s Amway Centre, Trump complained he had been “under assault from the very first day” of his presidency by a “fake news media” and “illegal witch hunt” that had tried to keep him and his supporters down.
And he painted a disturbing picture of what life would look like if he loses in 2020, accusing his critics of “un-American conduct” and telling the crowd that Democrats “want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it”. “A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream,” he said, ripping “radical” and “unhinged” Democrats even as he made only passing mention of any of the men and women running to replace him.
He appeared eager for a rerun of 2016, spending considerably more time focused on former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, whose name elicited “Lock her up!” chants, than on his 2020 challengers, even though she is not on the ballot.
Trump spoke fondly of his 2016 run, calling it “a defining moment in American history”.
Of course, Trump never really stopped running. He officially filed for re-election on January 20, 2017, the day of his inauguration, and held his first 2020 rally in February, 2017, in nearby Melbourne, Florida. He has continued holding his signature “Make America Great Again” rallies in the months since.
While Trump bested Clinton there in 2016, a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday found Democratic hopefuls Joe Biden leading Trump 50 per cent to 41 per cent, and Bernie Sanders besting him 48 per cent to 42 per cent.