Trump names the day for declaring run at presidency

Divisive Republican will lay down his marker for 2024 this week, as critics in his party warn against move

DONALD TRUMP will forge ahead with his declaration of a third presidential run on Tuesday, according to a senior adviser, despite disappointing results in the midterm elections.

The former president faced calls from senior Republicans, and some of his own aides, to delay the move in the wake of a lacklustre performance by candidates he had backed.

But Jason Miller, a senior adviser in the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, said Mr Trump had taken the decision to go ahead.

“President Trump is going to announce on Tuesday that he’s running for president. And it’s going to be a very professional, very buttoned-up announcement,” Mr Miller said.

The adviser said he had spoken to Mr Trump on Friday, while the former president was playing golf. Mr Trump told him: “Of course I’m running. I’m going to do this, and I want to make sure people know that I’m fired up.”

Mr Miller himself had been among those urging Mr Trump, in private and in public, to delay the announcement until after a runoff in the Georgia Senate race on December 6.

Declaring so early, two years before the 2024 election, is seen as an effort by Mr Trump to deter potential Republican rivals.

He has already issued scathing public criticism of his main rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and another ascendant Republican state governor, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.

But senior Republican figures expressed concern that Mr Trump’s announcement so early in the process would be counterproductive, for both him and the party.

Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire, who was easily re-elected in the midterms, said it was a “silly decision”.

Mr Sununu said: “I think what the former president doesn’t understand is if he announces, he’s not going to keep anyone out of the race. But no one else is going to announce until summer or fall for a whole variety of fundraising reasons and all of this. So it’s going to be a very awkward thing with only him in the race. No one’s going to really care. It’s just going to be weird.”

Some potential Republican candidates, including former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, have said they will not run against Mr Trump in 2024.

However, numerous others have refused to rule out doing so. That includes Mr DeSantis, Mr Youngkin, former vice-president Mike Pence, and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

They will have the luxury of waiting for many months and picking a moment to declare when Mr Trump is on the back foot. Mr Trump, who will be 78

‘I think what he doesn’t understand is if he announces, he’s not going to keep anyone out of the race’

when the next election is held, has said he will make a “very big announcement” on Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

He had hoped to ride a Republican “red wave” of victories in the midterms that would be a launchpad for his new presidential campaign.

But that did not transpire and a series of electoral setbacks included a loss by Mehmet Oz, the TV doctor who Mr Trump had backed in a key Senate race in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, on Friday, lawyers for Mr Trump sued the congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. Mr Trump has been issued with a subpoena to testify and provide documents to the committee.

Arguing that he should not have to, his lawyers said that no president or former president had been compelled to comply with a congressional subpoena, although some had done so voluntarily.

They said: “Long-held precedent and practice maintain that separation of powers prohibits Congress from compelling a president to testify before it.”