E-Paper
US president Donald Trump sets the ball rolling
US president launches re-election bid, focuses on cancer cure, end to AIDS and Mars landing
After winning the 2016 election and taking over as the 45th occupant of the White House, US President Donald Trump never really stopped campaigning. On Tuesday, he formally launched his re-election bid with a focus on the same supporters, same priorities - immigration and trade - and similar attack lines.
In a speech to supporters in a packed stadium in Orlando, Trump railed against Democrats as the “radical left” driving the US towards socialism, listed tax and regulation cuts as achievements, and cited his immigration policy as work in progress.
Also Read | Patrick Shanahan withdraws his candidacy to be Donald Trump’s defense secretary
Despite having been in the White House for more than two years, he portrayed himself as an outsider who wanted to “drain the swamp”, as he has described Washington’s political establishment and which he said retaliated with a “witch-hunt” - the Russia meddling probe.
Trump told supporters, “As long as you keep this team in place, we have a tremendous way to go. Our future has never looked brighter or sharper.”
He offered no new vision of that future, though. His planks remained the same as his 2016 promises: crackdown on illegal immigration, measures to bring back jobs, reviving US manufacturing, increasing defence spending, support for gun rights and opposition to abortion.
Also Read | Donald Trump promises to eradicate AIDS, cure cancer during his second term
‘Keep America Great’, the slogan he announced, is not new. He had unveiled it in 2017, arguing that the previous slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ has outlived its utility.
There were some new pitches. “We will come up with the cures to many, many problems, to many, many diseases, including cancer,” he said. “We will eradicate AIDS in America (and)... lay the foundation for landing American astronauts on the surface of Mars.”
