Amid chants of ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!” Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 election.

“Together we will be taking on some of the most corrupt forces and entrenched interests imaginable,” Trump told the crowd of admirers in a 9pm EST event at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida Tuesday night.

He enters the race as an early frontrunner in the Republican field, remaining widely popular among the voters who elected him to office in 2016 and who supported him again, in record numbers, in 2020 when he received more votes than any sitting president in history.

During the announcement, he reviewed what he said were his accomplishments, since scuttled by President Biden. He also highlighted Biden’s notable missteps, and questions about his mental status.

“Now we have a president who falls asleep at global conferences,” said Trump. “We are here tonight to declare that it does not have to be this way.”

Since leaving office, Trump has continued to hold giant rallies, attracting as many as tens of thousands of supporters at a time: a phenomenon never before seen with an ex-president in the US.

Trump added that his endorsement record in the Midterms amounted to 232 wins and 22 losses, and 98.6% in the primaries. Noting the Republican victory in the House of Representatives, Trump observed, “[House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] has been fired.”

Trump’s candidacy promises to continue to stir controversy and stinging opposition from some Democrats and Republicans alike. His enemies, in partnership with the media and US intelligence agencies, hounded Trump since he announced he’s be running for President in 2015. Popular narratives labeled him a candidate who had no chance of winning and a clown. When it was clear he was the frontrunner among Republicans, the narrative shifted to him being “dark and dangerous.” The FBI used political opposition research from a Russian source, paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to launch ill-fated investigations into Trump and his allies. In the end, there was no evidence Trump “colluded” with Russia in any way. On the other hand, much of the news reporting and intelligence leaks against Trump proved to be false and/or fabricated. An FBI attorney was convicted of doctoring a document to obtain a wiretap on the Trump campaign.

Ten US presidents have run for re-election and lost. Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term after sitting out four years (1885-1889 and 1893-1897). He was the 22nd and 24th President.