Former U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday during a rally on the eve of the midterm elections that he is planning "a very big announcement" on Nov. 15 amid speculation that he may soon launch his bid to run in the 2024 presidential race.
During rallies to drum up support for Republican candidates in the run-up to Tuesday's congressional midterm elections, Trump, 76, has repeatedly hinted about his own plans to launch another presidential bid.
"Not to detract from tomorrow's very important even critical election...I'm going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida," Trump told the crowd of supporters in the Midwest state of Ohio, without further elaboration.
Trump was defeated by Democratic Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, but still holds sway in the Republican Party.
Trump's four-year presidency through January 2021 was tumultuous, with his unilateralist "America First" policy and his provocative rhetoric often causing friction with other countries including some of the United States' closest allies.
His final days in office also unfolded chaotically in the wake of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, in which a pro-Trump mob sought to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump continues to claim that the 2020 race was "rigged and stolen" and Biden has accused Trump and Republicans, who are increasingly aligned to the former president, as a threat to democracy.
But the Democrats have been facing headwinds in the midterm elections, with high inflation a top concern for voters and popularity for the 79-year-old Biden remains sluggish.
The midterms usually serve as a referendum of the sitting president, typically leading the party in power to lose seats in the House of Representatives.
All 435 seats in the House and about one-third of the 100 seats in the Senate are on the ballot. Races to elect 36 governors as well as mayoral contests and battles for state legislative seats also take place.
The Democratic Party currently holds a slim majority in the House. The Senate is evenly divided, but the Democrats hold the majority due to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
