Joe Biden in US midterm campaign sprint as Donald Trump teases 2024 run

US President Joe Biden is making his final major campaign swing just days ahead of the midterms

At a rally in Iowa, Donald Trump sent the strongest signal yet that he plans to run again in 2024

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US President Joe Biden speaking during a New Mexico Democrats rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 12:44pm, 4 Nov 2022Updated: 2:47am, 23 Nov 2022

US President Joe Biden and Donald Trump launched multi-state campaign blitzes ahead of midterm elections that could end up hobbling the Democrat’s next two years, while setting the stage for a Trump comeback attempt.

Biden used a visit to a community college in New Mexico on Thursday to tout his administration’s bid to ease crushing student debt and other policies that have “delivered enormous progress for the nation”.

Over three days, he is flying on to California, Chicago and finally Pennsylvania, where popular former president Barack Obama – for whom he served as vice-president for eight years – will join him at a rally on Saturday.

Biden’s big final push comes on the heels of a speech Wednesday warning that Trump and the increasingly dominant far-right wing of the Republican Party are threatening the survival of US democracy with conspiracy theories aimed at undermining confidence in election results.

But Trump – who remains the Republican Party’s de facto leader and possible 2024 presidential candidate despite losing the 2020 election and being under investigation for stashing top secret presidential documents at his Florida golf resort and for other reasons – is on the offensive.

Hitting four key electoral states in five days – Iowa on Thursday, then Florida, Pennsylvania and finally Ohio on Monday – Trump is reinforcing his role as Republican overlord.