WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said Monday he will make a “big announcement” next week in Florida as he teased his third presidential campaign while campaigning in Ohio ahead of the final day of voting in this year’s midterm elections.
“On Tuesday, Nov. 15, at Mar-a-Lago, I’m going to make a very big announcement,” Trump told a cheering crowd in Vandalia, Ohio, Monday night, where he was holding his final rally of the midterm season. to support Senate candidate J.D. Vance. “We want nothing to detract from the importance of tomorrow.”
Trump has been increasingly vocal about his plans to launch a third presidential campaign, saying in recent days that he is “very, very, very likely” to run again and to formalize his intentions “very, very soon.”
“I’ll probably have to do it again, but stay tuned,” he said Sunday night in Miami. “Stay with us until tomorrow night in the great state of Ohio.”
Republican officials and some in Trump’s orbit have urged him to wait until after the midterms to launch his campaign, in particular to avoid turning the election into a referendum on him and to protect him from potential blame if Republicans don’t do as well as the party hopes.
But Trump has been eager to move forward and has said privately for weeks that he might announce his plans at one of his rallies, even as his aides discuss possible locations and dates for a formal announcement in the coming days.
At a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, he told a crowd that “in the next very, very, very short period of time, you’re going to be so happy, okay?”
“You’ll be surprised how quickly. But first we have to get a historic Republican victory on November 8,” he said.
In 2016 and 2020, Trump won Ohio, once considered the frontrunner, by 8 points. The state also confirmed an early test of his endorsement strength, when his decision to endorse Vance in a highly competitive state Senate primary gave the political newcomer a victory in a crowded Republican field.
Vance, an author, venture capitalist and one-time Trump critic, is part of a new generation of Republican leaders who have embraced Trump’s “America First” stance, including his isolationist foreign policy and focus on immigration.
