For about 90 minutes, Trump punished “high-ranking Republicans”, “RINO’s” and other Republicans who criticized him. Banned from Twitter, he said that big tech companies “should be punished with big sanctions whenever they silence conservative voices”. And in broad criticism of Biden’s first month in office, he criticized the Democratic president for his treatment of everything from the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine to immigration, education and protection for people who are transgender.
“None of us even imagined how bad they would be and how far they would go,” said Trump, calling the Biden government “anti-jobs, anti-family, anti-borders, anti-energy, anti-women and anti-science.”
“In just a month, we went from ‘America First’ to ‘America Last’,” said Trump.
His own achievements, said the president twice impeachment, were superior both in terms of government and politics. Trump credits his party’s successes with negative votes in November, despite many Republicans voting more than he in their districts.
He predicted that the Democratic Party would suffer “fulminating losses” in the midterm elections and that, in four years, “a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House”.
He added, “And I wonder who it is?”
If Trump is provoking another run in 2024, however, he is far from his last defeat. In a prolonged riff about the November election, he perpetuated the false claim – rejected by election experts and administrators and by courts across the country – that the election was stolen.
When he said, “This election was rigged,” the crowd shouted, “You won!”
Trump’s comparison of his own presidency to that of Biden belied the relatively high public approval ratings of his successor – and Trump’s poor. But the CPAC is an accommodating crowd.
In the annual CPAC presidential poll released just before Trump spoke, 95 percent of conference participants said the Republican Party should continue with Trump’s political issues and ideas, and 68 percent of participants said Trump should run again in 2024 .
In a field filled with potential primary candidates, Trump smashed the field with 55 percent support, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with 21 percent. All other Republican Party politicians surveyed registered in single digits.
Even before Sunday, Trump hovered over the 2022 midterm elections and – whether he runs again or not – the presidential primaries in 2024. He is preparing to raise a super PAC and on Friday, he endorsed Max Miller , a former White House adviser, in his campaign to oust Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.
Trump’s advisers urged him before speaking on Sunday to focus his anger on Biden and the Democratic Party, while limiting the mention of his disputes with Republican lawmakers who criticized him. Instead, he blasted Republicans who supported his second impeachment by name, including “big shots” like Sens. Mitt Romney and “Little Ben Sasse” and deputy “warmonger” Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
“Get rid of them all,” said Trump.
Still, Trump described the dispute within the Republican Party as limited: “The only divide is between a handful of political hackers in the Washington, DC system and everyone else across the country,” he said, adding, “I think we have tremendous unity. “
Trump also ruled out starting a third party, calling “fake news” an idea he had once he floated himself.
Trump’s resurgence in public life was, for the celebrity who became president, never in doubt. But it was more of a break from tradition for Trump, as presidents who step down normally depart from party politics for a period of months immediately afterwards.
Banned from Twitter and demoted from the White House, the ex-president reveled in the accolades given to him at CPAC.
Taking the stage at CPAC, he said: “Do you miss me already?”
The audience burst in, sometimes shouting, “USA! USA !. “Later, there was an ongoing call,” We love you! We love you! “
It was a fitting end to an event that included a golden Trump statue and a list of Republicans, all promoting it. Senator Ted Cruz, himself a potential candidate for the presidency in 2024, said during the conference that “Donald J. Trump is not going anywhere”. Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic advisor at the White House, announced Trump’s “enormously consequential” presidency and referred to him as “the boss”. And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis swore, “We can’t, we won’t, go back to the days of the failed Republican establishment of the past.”
The poll was in line with the sentiment of the broader Republican constituency, most of whom, 53 percent, would choose Trump over any other Republican if the 2024 primaries were held today. On Sunday, Rep. Jim Jordan said he expected Trump to run again in 2024 and, “If he does, he will win.”