Donald Trump has dropped another major hint that he will run to become US President again in 2024.
The disgraced former US leader said he ‘may just have to do it again’ at his first rally since the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago club.
Trump branded the raid ‘one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history’ and ‘a travesty of justice’.
The intervention comes as the Republican Party shifted into midterm election mode ahead of a new Senate and House elections in November.
But the comments in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, last night are far from the first time Trump has heavily implied he will run again.
He said: ‘We are leading Biden and everyone else, including the Republicans, by record numbers in the polls. So I may just have to do it again…’ Sky News reported.
‘You’ll be… stay tuned. I have to do it again. You hear that Oz? (Senate nominee Dr Mehmet Oz) Do it again. May just have to do it again.
‘But first, we have to win a historic victory for the Republican Party this November.’
On the raid in Florida which reportedly saw the FBI discover classified files, Trump added: ‘They’re trying to silence me and more importantly they’re trying to silence you. But we will not be silenced, right?’
Investigators recovered thousands of documents in the search, including more than 100 with classified and top secret markings.
The former President – whose supporters stormed the US Capitol building leaving five dead after he falsely claimed that Joe Biden ‘stole’ the election from him – has endorsed a number of Republicans who won primaries this summer.
Yet many of those candidates are inexperienced and polarising figures, now struggling in their November races.
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That is putting Senate control – once assumed to be locked in for his party – on the line.
His picks include Dr Mehmet Oz, a television personality and Republican Pennsylvania candidate, author JD Vance in Ohio, venture capitalist Blake Masters in Arizona and former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia.
Veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres explained: ‘Republicans have now nominated a number of candidates who’ve never run for office before for very high-profile Senate race.’
He did not write off his party’s chance, but added: ‘It’s a much more difficult endeavour than a candidate who had won several difficult political races before’.
Meanwhile, Trump faces a series of simmering legal wrangles, two years out from another possible run at the Presidency.
It comes as President Biden gave a prime-time speech in Philadelphia warning that Trump and other ‘Maga’ [Make America Great Again] Republicans – posed a threat to US democracy.
Trump repeatedly attacked his rival – saying at one point ‘above all this election is a referendum on the corruption and extremism’ of President Biden and Democrats.
While Republicans were once seen as having a good chance of gaining control of both chambers of congress in November, benefitting from soaring inflation, high gas prices and Mr Biden’s slumping approval ratings, they have found themselves on the defensive since the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade decision protecting abortion rights.
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MORE : Over 300 classified documents recovered during raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home