Former President Donald Trump has said the fate of the nation hangs in the balance in the 2024 election, framing the White House race as a day of reckoning.
Closing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, Trump warned the crowd that they are fighting “sinister forces” who want to destroy the nation and control their lives.
“This is the final battle, they know it, I know it, everyone knows it, this is it: either they win or we win, and if they win, we no longer have a country,” Trump said in almost two years. – speech of the hour.
Trump said that if his political rivals succeed, they will turn the nation into a “socialist dumping ground for criminals, drug addicts, Marxists, thugs, radical and dangerous refugees that no other country wants.”
Trump has other plans in store.
“We are going to finish what we started,” he told an enthusiastic CPAC crowd. “Let’s complete the mission. We will see this battle until the final victory.”
Trump’s appearance was the highlight of the four-day talk. The event drew hordes of conservative leaders and activists from across the country who believe the former president gives them the best chance to unseat President Biden next year.
Trump promised the rapt audience that if he were re-elected, he would ensure that the so-called deep state did not work against him as many believe it did during his administration.
Trump touted himself as having the experience to deal with the pitfalls of the presidency, including knowing who to interrupt.
“I will completely destroy the deep state,” Trump said. “I will fire the unelected bureaucrats and shadow forces that have armed our justice system like never before. These are sick people.”
Trump called the Biden administration “the most corrupt in American history” and vowed that if he is re-elected, he will seek revenge.
“In 2016, I declared that I am your voice,” Trump said. “Today, I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution.”
He also promised the crowd that he would “never back down” and always continue to fight on their behalf, including removing the federal government from diversity, equity and inclusion policies and restoring parental rights in education.
He also criticized his own party, which is deeply divided over his role and whether he should return to office. Addressing past party leaders, Trump said his MAGA movement has reshaped the Republican Party by sidelining free trade “zealots” and neoconservatives who back “endless wars.”
“We had a Republican Party that was run by monsters, neoconservatives, globalists, open border freaks, and fools, but we will never go back to the party of [former House Speaker] Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and [Former Flordia Gov.] Jeb Bush,” Trump said.
Trump said the Republican Party is done with China-loving politicians, too.
“Are you listening to this Mitch McConnell, are you listening?” Trump said, pointing to the Kentucky Senate Republican leader.
Trump took the stage to cheers and applause after winning the CPAC poll that measured who convention-goers would vote for in the Republican Party’s presidential primaries. Trump won 62% of the vote, beating out the next most popular pick, the governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis, for 42 points.
He thanks the crowd for crowning him the winner “in the beautiful straw poll.” He called it “a great victory.”
His speech to the CPAC crowd, which gave him numerous standing ovations, felt more like a rally, he said.
The former president has again litigated past criticism of his administration, as well as efforts to indict him in Georgia, where he fought in 2020 to prevent the state from certifying President Biden’s victory.
Trump said before taking office that he was living a great life.
“I didn’t know the word subpoena. I didn’t know the word grand jury,” Trump said. “They want to lynch you for not doing anything bad. I didn’t know they wanted to lynch you for doing such a great job. I didn’t know they wanted to lock you up because your poll numbers are better than any they’ve seen in years.”
Trump outlined some of his priorities for a second term in the White House.
“At the top of my list, we will be stopping the slide into costly and endless wars,” he said. “We have to stop. We can’t keep spending hundreds of billions of dollars protecting people who don’t even like us.”
He vowed to somehow end the ongoing war in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia more than a year ago.
“Before I even get to the Oval Office, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine resolved,” Trump said.
He vowed to revoke China’s most-favored-nation status and make the country “financially responsible” for the COVID-19 pandemic, which he called “the China virus.”
He also vowed to restore the nation’s energy independence, which has been hampered by the Biden administration’s restrictions on oil and natural gas extraction.
Biden’s energy policies, he said, empowered Moscow and provided Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with the money to invade Ukraine.
Trump said that the war would not have happened if he was still in the White House.
“Ukraine would have been prospering. There would be no deaths, ”she said. “And there would have been no destroyed cities that can never be rebuilt. Russia would never have pulled the trigger.”
He blamed Biden for “the most dangerous moment in history” and said the current president “is driving us into oblivion,” blaming him for forcing China and Russia into a dangerous alliance.
“I will very easily prevent World War III,” Trump promised. “You’re going to have World War III if something doesn’t happen fast.”
Trump’s speech was the grand finale of the conservative talk, which met over four days at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in Maryland’s National Harbor.
Trump’s reign over the event appeared solid, with attendees showing little interest in a handful of other Republican hopefuls, including Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who also spoke. in the event.
Trump’s speech came as other 2024 Republican hopefuls were meeting with Republican megadonors at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, just a few miles away from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property. Trump was not invited to the event, which was sponsored by the anti-tax advocacy group Club for Growth. The two dueling conferences underscored the deep divide in the Republican Party over Trump.
Trump did not specifically repeat his typical claims that Biden stole the 2020 election, but did say that “we did a lot better in 2020 than we did in 2016.”
He said presidential primary polls show he is leading all other Republicans “by massive numbers, and very importantly, perhaps more importantly, we are trailing Biden by a long way, in the general election polls.”
Many national polls show Trump ahead of the field of potential and declared Republican candidates, but some polls in early primary voting states show his closest rival, DeSantis, leading Trump.
Trump said his popularity in the polls coincided with increasing prosecutions against him by “more and more crazy” prosecutors who, he said, know they can’t stop him at the polls.
Mr. Trump reiterated his criticism of changes to voting procedures implemented during the pandemic that remain in many states.
“All Republican governors should immediately opt for paper ballots, one-day voting and voter ID,” Trump said.
