Biden reportedly preparing to announce 2024 re-election bid on Tuesday

Joe Biden is preparing to announce his bid for re-election as soon as Tuesday, the anniversary of the launch of the 2020 campaign that put him in the White House, multiple news outlets reported.

But as he is the oldest president ever inaugurated, and will be 82 on inauguration day in 2025 and 86 by the end of a second term, questions have persisted about his hunger and fitness to run.

Earlier this month, Trump predicted that Biden would not run.

The remarks prompted widespread remarks and jokes. But in more formal settings, and behind the scenes of Democratic politics, Biden has made moves indicating an impending announcement.

Biden has also summoned top Democratic donors to Washington next week, reportedly for a strategy session with his chief advisers.

Polling does not paint a positive picture for Biden and his team.

This week, a survey from the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research said just 26% of Americans wanted to see Biden run again. The figure was more healthy among Democrats but still under half, at 47%.

Two rival candidates have declared campaigns for the Democratic nomination but they are fringe figures: the self-help author Marianne Williamson and Robert F Kennedy Jr, a scion of a famous political family now widely known as a Covid vaccine denier.

On the Republican side of the race, Trump enjoys clear polling leads. The former president has been boosted rather than hobbled by his criminal indictment in New York and other forms of legal jeopardy relating to his election subversion, treatment of classified information, business affairs and an allegation of rape which will come to trial next week. Denying all wrongdoing, he has presented himself as a victim of his Democratic foes.

Earlier this week, DeSantis paid homage to a British hero of the American right, the former prime minister Winston Churchill, and signaled no let-up in his hard-right campaigning despite setbacks with donors alarmed by his pursuit of book bans in schools and signing of a draconian abortion ban.

In Congress, attempts by House Republicans to ensnare Biden in congressional investigations over his administration and the business career and addiction struggles of his son, Hunter Biden, have yet to produce major results.

Biden is often presented as the only Democrat who can beat Trump, as he did in 2020 after surging to victory in the primary with strong support from Black voters.

In head-to-head polling, however, Biden and Trump remain closely matched.