Donald Trump has suggested that he may run again for the US presidency in 2024.
The former president was back on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania on Saturday – his first rally since the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.
He told his supporters: “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. 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.”
It comes after US President Joe Biden said Mr Trump’s followers have an ideology that “looks at America and sees carnage and darkness and despair” as the midterm elections loom.
Mr Trump went on to describe the FBI search of his Florida home as “one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history” and repeated his claims that there is a witch-hunt against him.
“The shameful raid and break in of my home, Mar-a-Lago, was a travesty of justice that made a mockery of America’s laws, traditions and principles before the entire world. The entire world was watching. And they are shocked. They are shocked.
“The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everyone else in the polls, I hate to say it.”
He added: “The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters controlled by radical left scoundrels, lawyers and the media who tell them what to do – you people right there and when to do it. They’re trying to silence me and more importantly, they are trying to silence you. But we will not be silenced, right?”
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Photo released of top secret documents uncovered in FBI search of former US president’s home
Blacked-out affidavit shows president had taken ‘top secret’ documents home to Mar-a-Lago
The FBI carried out a raid on Mr Trump’s estate on 8 August as part of an investigation into whether the former president took classified records from the White House.
Empty folders marked “classified” were found among more than 11,000 government documents, according to the US Justice Department.
Investigators conducting the criminal probe are focusing not just on why the records were stored at the estate, but also on whether the Trump team intentionally misled them about the unlawful presence of government secrets.