In first return to Washington, Trump hints at 2024 White House run

In first return to Washington, Trump hints at 2024 White House run
In first return to Washington, Trump hints at 2024 White House run

Donald Trump returned to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving the White House 18 months ago, delivering a fiery speech sprinkled with strong hints he may run for president again in 2024.

The 76-year-old Trump stopped short of declaring his candidacy, but laid out what he believed should be the priorities for the "next Republican president."

"I always say I ran the first time and I won, then I ran a second time and I did much better," Trump said. "We may just have to do it again. We have to straighten out our country.

"I look forward to laying out many more details in the weeks and months to come."

Several hours before Trump took the stage at the right-wing America First Policy Institute, his former vice president, Mike Pence, who is also considering a White House run in 2024, addressed a different conservative audience in Washington.

Trump's 90-minute address to the conservative America First Policy Institute echoed many of the themes of his victorious 2016 campaign, including illegal immigration and crime.

Trump repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 election and denounced the House committee investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters as the work of "political hacks and thugs."

"And I don't think that's going to happen," he added, prompting chants from the crowd of "Four more years!"