united-states us-president
Has trump announced his candidacy for president in 2024?
<p>I was considering asking this on <a href="https://politics.stackexchange.com/">politics</a>, so feel free to migrate if it seems better suited there. However to me it seems like a point of law.</p>
<p>Not being American, I am only aware that there are implications of announcing that one is running without fully knowing the implications.</p>
<p>I believe it is financially advantageous to delay announcing as contribution rules become tighter, but that is not the point of the question.</p>
<p>Is there a formal process for announcing one's candidacy ? Maybe forms to be filled?</p>
<p>Or, does trump <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/01/26/trump-declares-himself-the-47th-president-while-playing-golf/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">describing himself as the 47th president</a> count as announcing his candidacy?</p>
<p>What does the law actually say?</p>

<p>It's actually simpler than you might expect:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you intend to spend more than US$5000 (which is nearly certain) you must fill out and file a Federal Election Commission (FEC) Form 2.</p>
</li>
<li><p>There are 50 states that you now need to consider getting on their ballots.  There is no requirement that you register in all of them but if you don't then you may have trouble winning the required electoral majority.  The problem here is that every state has its own requirements but usually it's gathering signatures as required in that state's regulations.  This is where you need an &quot;organization&quot; of some sort to gather signatures and get you properly placed on the ballots in all 50 states of all of the states you think you need to be on.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>The above assumes that you meet the US Constitution's criteria for a President.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, President Trump, while he has make some statements to that effect, has not officially filed any forms at the federal or state level for the next presidential election so far.  But anyone can say or imply that they are running and they may be but until the forms are filed it's not official.</p>
