Trump promises 'very big announcement' next week as US voters head to polls for crucial midterm elections

DONALD Trump is to announce he is standing to be US president again in less than a week.

The 76-year-old told a rally in Dayton, Ohio he "didn't want to detract" from the US midterm elections, which take place today.

But he effectively confirmed he is making a bid for the presidency in 2024 as he endorsed a raft of Republican candidates.

He said: "I'm going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

"This is a very important, even critical election. We're turning into a police state. The time to stand up to this growing left wing tyranny is now. You have to crush the communists.”

Americans will cast their vote in elections later today that could result in Republicans winning control of one or both chambers of Congress.

Non-partisan election forecasters predict Republicans are likely to pick up roughly 25 seats in the 435-seat House of Representatives, more than enough to win a majority.

Republicans could also pick up the one seat they need to win control of the Senate.

The suggestion from Trump that he would make a second run for the White House came after a speech in which he blasted President Joe Biden and said the United States was a "nation in decline" under his leadership.

"We are a nation that is no longer respected or listened to anywhere around the world, he added.

"We are a nation that in many ways has become a joke."

He also called on his supporters to reject the “radical left-wing maniacs” described Joe Biden as "cognitively impaired" and called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an “animal” for impeaching him twice “for nothing”.

It came just hours after former Trump aide Jason Miller told Nigel Farage on GB News that a Trump presidential announcement was now 'imminent'.

Earlier Mr Biden warned that a Republican victory could weaken the country's democratic institutions.

"Today we face an inflection point. We know in our bones that our democracy's at risk and we know that this is your moment to defend it," Biden told a crowd at Bowie State University, a historically Black college outside Washington.