The liberal media told us that Donald Trump’s February 24 address to attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference was going to paint a dark picture of America—what else is new? In other words, it would be wildly entertaining, but also, perhaps, a retread of 2016 and 2020. I will give The New York Times credit for that, as the former president’s 90-minute address was what you’ve already heard on the stump. Still, Trump is running on the ‘I told you so’ narrative on issues that voters care about the most (via NYT):
Former President Donald J. Trump laid out what’s in store for America should he or President Biden win the 2024 presidential election, using a Saturday speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference to cast one nearly utopian vision of the country’s future and one reminiscent of a postapocalyptic movie.
If Mr. Biden is re-elected for a second four-year term, Mr. Trump warned in his speech, Medicare will “collapse.” Social Security will “collapse.” Health care in general will “collapse.” So, too, will public education. Millions of manufacturing jobs will be “choked off into extinction.” The U.S. economy will be “starved of energy” and there will be “constant blackouts.” The Islamist militant group Hamas will “terrorize our streets.” There will be a third world war and America will lose it. America itself will face “obliteration.”
On the other hand, Mr. Trump promised on Saturday that if he is elected America will be “richer and safer and stronger and prouder and more beautiful than ever before.” Crime in major cities? A thing of the past.
[…]
In his 2020 campaign, Mr. Trump warned that Mr. Biden would “confiscate your guns,” and “destroy your suburbs.” He predicted that the economy would sink into a depression worse than the 1930s Great Depression and that the “stock market will crash.” A Biden presidency, he predicted four years ago, “would mean that America’s seniors have no air conditioning during the summer, no heat during the winter and no electricity during peak hours.” And, he warned in July 2020, “you will have no more energy coming out of the great state of Texas, out of New Mexico, out of anywhere.”
Some of those past predictions are now checkable, and have turned out to be fictions. The stock market has hit record highs under the Biden administration. Guns haven’t been confiscated. Air conditioning is as good or bad as it ever was. And under Mr. Biden, the United States is producing more oil — not only more than it did under Mr. Trump but more than any country ever has.
Mr. Trump also left office with a long list of his own unfulfilled campaign promises, including completing the construction of a wall along the southwestern border. On Saturday, he pinned the blame for that failure on fellow Republicans in Congress — and on his own inexperience.
“Don’t forget, I had never done this stuff before,” he said, describing his border wall negotiations.
TRUMP AT CPAC: "4 years ago I told you that if 'Crooked' Joe Biden got to the White House, our borders would be abolished, our middle class would be decimated & our communities would be plagued by bloodshed, chaos & violent crime."
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 24, 2024
"We were right about everything." pic.twitter.com/R1vyGzoTuR
The latter part is correct. Trump isn’t a seasoned politician, and then-Speaker Paul Ryan promised to get the border wall done in the next round of spending measures, which he reneged on when he opted to leave Congress. The air conditioning bit remains a looming issue with fixed-income seniors. And yes, their home budgets could be torched depending on what state they live in. The stock market is priming for a massive reset, and even if the market was doing well—working Americans aren’t, thanks to Biden’s inflationary policies.
“Guns haven’t been confiscated.” That doesn’t mean the anti-gun Left is not trying. The Biden White House touts what they think are good jobs reports, usually revised weeks later. The fact that Joe Biden is polling at abysmal levels for an incumbent president on domestic and foreign policy presents a unique opportunity for Trump and the Republicans—they can’t go off half-cocked on the stump as they did during the 2022 midterms. Despite what Niki Haley says, the GOP base will unite behind Trump, and yes—he can win. the former president has one of the most efficiently dispersed political coalitions in recent memory. Trump voters live where elections are decided, which is a plus since our election system favors geographic diversity. Meanwhile, Biden is facing Arab American defections over the Israel-Hamas war, which puts the Rust Belt in play. We’ll get a better read on how serious this Muslim voter revolt is in tomorrow’s Michigan primary. Labor union members, along with black and Hispanic voters, are all souring on Joe. Voters view him as too old to be president. Character debates are happening, but none of them favor Democrats.
Trump’s CPAC address kicks off what will be a rematch between the two men, one of which has mentally degraded immensely since 2020. We’re at a point right now, where it’s dubious if Joe Biden will ever agree to a debate.
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