Summary
Donald Trump has concluded his approximately 90-minute speech at CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland. Here are the key takeaways:
If Joe Biden wins, “the worst is yet to come”, Trump warned the audience in his opening remarks. He went call Biden the “crookedest, most incompetent president in the history of our country”.
Trump also mocked Biden and his mental capabilities and called the current president “a threat to democracy”. He went on to call himself a “proud political dissident”, adding: “A vote for Trump is your ticket back to freedom.”
On his legal troubles, Trump compared himself to American gangster Al Capone, saying: “I’ve been indicted more than Alphonse Capone.” He also accused the Biden administration and Democrats of “weaponizing” the justice department and FBI.
Trump, who previously compared his criminal indictments to the persecution of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who suddenly died last week, described his court cases as “Stalinist show trials”. He then accused the Biden administration of replacing “law, precedent, and due process with a rabid mob of radical left Democrat partisans masquerading as judges and juries and prosecutors”.
On foreign policy, Trump said that if he had been president, Hamas’s attack on Israel and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have never happened. He then descended into a lengthy ramble on how he attempted to strong-arm Mexico over his border security measures – while veering into stories of his flight to Iraq, pilots who were “better looking than Tom Cruise” and his attempt to award himself the congressional Medal of Honor.
On border security, Trump vowed that his first order of business as president would be “sealing the border, stopping the invasion” and sending “Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home”. He then said there are languages in the US that nobody has ever heard of, calling it a “horrible thing”.
On law enforcement and crime, Trump vowed that he could solve crime rates “in one day, in one hour, in one minute” if he was president. He then said: “We have the greatest law enforcement people in the world but they’re not allowed to do their job.”
Trump closed his speech by calling on voters to vote for him in South Carolina, where the state’s Republican primary is being held today. “We’re going to win the election. We’re going to win it big and we’re going to win it bigger than ever before,” he said.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.
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“Our country is run by people that are destroying it. We’re not going to let it happen. We’re going to have a great military … our country is going to function properly,” Donald Trump said in his closing remarks.
“I’m going to leave you with this one final message. We’re going to win the election. We’re going to win it big and we’re going to win it bigger than ever before … We are going to make America great again,” he said.
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Expressing his support for law enforcement, Donald Trump said: “We have the greatest law enforcement people in the world but they’re not allowed to do their job.”
“Chicago could be solved in one day. New York could be solved in half a day … New York police, I grew up with them. They’re the greatest people … You have great people and they can do their job if they’re allowed to do their job but they don’t want to lose their pension, they don’t want to lose everything.
“I could solve that problem in one day, in one hour, in one minute,” he added.
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Donald Trump went on to recall how he asked his staff if he could give himself the congressional Medal of Honor following his flight into Iraq.
“I see my staff … and I said, ‘Let me ask you a question. Is the president of the United States allowed to give himself the congressional Medal of Honor because I did a very brave thing? I was so brave. Am I allowed to do it? And they said, ‘Sir, it would not be a good thing to do.’”
He went on to say: “Now here’s the problem with that story. The fake news media will lead tomorrow, ‘Donald Trump wanted to give himself the congressional [Medal of Honor].”
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Donald Trump has descended into a story of his experience flying into Iraq when he was president.
Describing the pilots, Trump said: “I sat with the pilots … the best-looking human beings I’ve ever seen. Not my thing … but they are handsome. Central casting. Better looking than Tom Cruise and taller.”
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Describing his border plans, Donald Trump said, “It will be the largest deportation in the history of our country and we have no choice.”
“It’s not a nice thing to say and I hate to say it and those clowns in the media will say, ‘Oh he’s so mean,’” Trump said.
He went on to attack languages, saying, “We have languages coming into our country…they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a horrible thing.”
Donald Trump vowed that his “first and most urgent action” as president will be the “sealing of the border, stopping the invasion … send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home”.
“We’re going to have to do them fast because no country can sustain what’s happening in our country,” he said, adding: “It’s a new category of crime and I wanted to call it ‘Biden migrant crime’ but it’s too long so we just call it ‘migrant crime’.”
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Donald Trump described his legal woes and court appearances as “Stalinist show trials”.
“The Stalinist show trials being carried out at Joe Biden’s orders set fire not only to our system of government but to hundreds of years of western legal tradition,” he said.
“They’ve replaced law, precedent, and due process with a rabid mob of radical left Democrat partisans masquerading as judges and juries and prosecutors,” he added.
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Trump: "Your victory will be our ultimate vindication"
“For years, you watched the entire Washington cesspool … feeding on the wealth and hopes and dreams of hardworking Americans,” Donald Trump told the crowd.
“November 5 will be our new liberation day, but for the liars and cheaters and fraudsters and censors and impostors who have commandeered our government, it will be their judgment day,” he added.
“Your victory will be our ultimate vindication, your liberty will be our ultimate reward and the unprecedented success of the United States of America will be my ultimate and absolute revenge,” he continued.
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Donald Trump pivoted to foreign policy by saying that numerous ongoing conflicts would have been avoided had he been president.
“The attack on Israel would have never happened. Iran was broke. They were broke. Ukraine would have never happened,” he said.
He went on to tell a cheering crowd: “Crooked Joe Biden, you are fired. Get out of here. Get that you’re just destroying our country. You’re fired. Get the hell out of here.”
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“We can break out of this Biden nightmare,” Donald Trump said.
He went on to attack migrants, saying: “They’re coming from Asia, they’re coming from the Middle East, coming from all over the world, coming from Africa, and we’re not going to stand for it … They’re destroying our country.”
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Donald Trump also went on to compare himself to American gangster Al Capone, saying: “Remember, I’ve been indicted more than Alphonse Capone.”
“It’s very dangerous. What’s going on? They’ve weaponized government. They’ve weaponized the DOJ, the FBI. We’ve never had anything like this in this country,” he continued.
“They are indeed a threat to democracy and I’m here to unleash this captive nation from Joe Biden and his gang of very bad people, very sick people, smart people, intelligent people, but they are hellbent on the destruction of American freedom,” Trump added.
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'I am a dissident', Trump says
“A vote for Trump is your ticket back to freedom, it’s your passport out of tyranny and it’s your only escape from Joe Biden and his gang’s fast track to hell,” Donald Trump said.
“And in many ways, we’re living in hell right now because the fact is, Joe Biden is a threat to democracy, really is a threat to democracy,” Trump continued.
“I stand before you today not only as your past and hopefully future president, but as a proud political dissident. I am a dissident,” he said.
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If Joe Biden wins, "the worst is yet to come," says Trump
Donald Trump has launched into his speech after a handful of thanks and acknowledgments to his supporters.
“I offer you another warning and we’ve been right about so much, just about everything. If crooked Joe Biden and his thugs win in 2024, the worst is yet to come,” he said.
“A country that will go and sink to levels that are unimaginable,” he added. “The declining crooked Joe Biden is the crookedest, most incompetent president in the history of our country,” he said.
“We’ll be losing world war three with weapons the likes of which nobody has ever seen before,” Trump continued.
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Donald Trump opened up his speech by thanking a slew of supporters including Vivek Ramaswamy and Kari Lake, as well as Argentinian president Javier Milei, who he described as “Maga. Make Argentina great again.”
Trump also recognized JD Vance and Cory Mills, as well as Stephen Miller, in his opening remarks.
Describing him as the “single greatest advertiser and purchaser of advertising in the history of America”, Trump went on to thank the MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, who also appeared at the conference over the weekend.
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National anthem sung by incarcerated January 6 rioters plays right before Trump walks out
Prior to Donald Trump’s appearance, CPAC played an audio clip of the national anthem sung by incarcerated defendants involved in the January 6 Capitol riots.
Interspersed with audio recordings of Trump, the clip echoed eerily through the CPAC hall before the defendants descended into a chant of “USA! USA!”
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Trump appears on stage at CPAC
Donald Trump has just walked on stage at CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland.
Stay tuned as we deliver the latest updates of his speech.
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South Carolina’s former governor Nikki Haley remains defiant about beating Donald Trump in her home state, where voters are heading to the polls for Saturday’s Republican primary.
The Guardian’s Joan Greve reports from Charleston, South Carolina:
At her primary eve rally in Mount Pleasant, just outside of Charleston, Haley called on her supporters to turn out in large numbers on Saturday.
“In a general election, you’re given a choice. In a primary, you make your choice,” Haley said. “This is the time we make our choice.”
But at this point, Haley would have to pull off a shocking upset to win South Carolina. According to the FiveThirtyEight average of South Carolina polls, Trump leads Haley by roughly 30 points in the state, and the former president has already won the first three voting contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. At his own primary eve rally in Rock Hill, near the North Carolina border, Trump voiced robust confidence that he would deliver a decisive victory on Saturday and indicated he was already turning his attention to the general election fight against Joe Biden.
For the full story, click here:
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Here are some images coming through the newswires from CPAC, where various conservative figures have made appearances over the weekend alongside their supporters:
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Ahead of his speech on Saturday, Donald Trump went after the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, who is facing scrutiny over her relationship with her deputy prosecutor Nathan Wade.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump, who is one of 19 defendants in the 2020 Georgia election racketeering case brought forth by Willis, wrote:
Based on the fact that District Attorney Fani Willis and her Lover were together long prior to the filing date of their Fake Lawsuit against me and many other innocent people, despite their sworn testimony to the contrary, this case must be determined as OVER and, of no further force or effect.”
He went on to accuse the case of being about “stealing close to $1 Million Dollars for Lover Wade”.
Court documents filed on Friday by Trump’s lawyers appeared to show that Wade made at least 35 visits to Willis’s neighbourhood before she hired him as a prosecutor.
During a court hearing earlier this month, Willis forcefully denied wrongdoing, saying: “You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
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Trump's Friday night speech predicted victory in South Carolina primary
With Donald Trump set to speak at CPAC, the former president also vowed to win South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday.
In an email sent out on Friday evening, Trump pledged to his supporters: “Tomorrow we WIN SOUTH CAROLINA!”
He went on to attack Joe Biden and the “DEEP STATE [which] did everything they could do interfere in our election and STOP US”.
Trump also accused Biden of being “bankrolled by HATE AMERICA liberal billionaires” and vowed, as usual, to “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”.
He then asked voters to “chip in”. Donation recommendations on his campaign website ranged from $20.24 to $3,000.
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Trump to speak at CPAC ahead of South Carolina primary
Good afternoon,
Donald Trump is set to take center stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland at around 1pm.
The former president is expected to speak for an hour at the event, which has already featured appearances from conservative figures including South Dakota governor Kristi Noem and former British prime minister Liz Truss.
Trump’s highly anticipated speech this year will follow a fiery address he delivered at last year’s event in which he warned of a third world war, told his supporters that he is their “retribution” and vowed to “obliterate the deep state”.
In a campaign email sent out on Friday, Trump offered supporters a brief glimpse at his 2024 CPAC speech. Lines include “Trump was right about everything” and “The only crime I have ever committed is defending America from those who want to destroy it”.
As Trump is slated to address CPAC, voters in South Carolina – where Trump is leading the state’s former governor Nikki Haley by around 30 points – will head to the polls on Saturday in that state’s Republican primary.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates.
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