Trump 2024 Is Official, and Reactions Are Very Split

As expected, former President Trump announced Tuesday night that he is mounting a 2024 presidential campaign. The word "lies" could be found in multiple articles about his announcement speech, with Mark Z. Barabak at the Los Angeles Times referring to the "yeasty mix of hyperbole, lies and grievance" permeating it. He notes that Trump suggested that the Chinese government meddled in the last election, causing his defeat. A fact-checking article at CNN finds a number of "false and misleading claims" on subjects including the border wall, gas prices, sea level rise, the strategic petroleum reserve, and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. See its full list here. More reaction and follow-up pieces around Trump's announcement:

• Fox News host Sean Hannity "welcomed" the 2024 announcement, while others in the Murdoch media empire had a more measured response or pushed back entirely, Reuters reports. On Monday, for example, the Wall Street Journal editorial board opposed another Trump bid for the presidency. See Reuters' roundup here, a CNN video roundup of conservative pundits who have urged Trump not to run here, or a CNN piece from before Trump's speech about skeptical House and Senate Republicans here.

• But there were plenty praising Trump's speech, Fox News reports. From Lindsey Graham: "If President Trump continues this tone and delivers this message on a consistent basis, he will be hard to beat." Mike Huckabee echoed that: "Trump got his mojo back tonight. He focused on the American people and the future, not the past. If he stays on this path, he's unbeatable." Ted Cruz and Ronny Jackson were among others supporting him after the speech.
• Reuters also rounds up reactions to Trump's announcement from others, including a number of analysts, here. More than one of them point to the poor showing by Trump-endorsed candidates in the midterm elections as a concern for Republicans.
• Not surprisingly, Democrats were quickly painting Trump as unfit for office, the Hill reports; President Biden released a video while Trump was still making his speech accusing Trump of "failing America." More Democratic reaction at the Hill.
• Prior to the speech, Politico ran a piece calling Kari Lake's loss in the Arizona gubernatorial race a "bad omen" for Trump. "Lake—the closest approximation to Trump running anywhere this cycle—became proof of the limitations of his grievance politics," writes David Siders. Full article here.
• Does Trump have a new slogan? He said he wanted to "make America great and glorious again" in his speech, leading to many MAGAGA jokes on Twitter.

(More Donald Trump 2024 stories.)