On Saturday night, former President Donald Trump returned to the stage of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as the keynote speaker. Trump reminded the crowd that CPAC is where it had all started, as he first made his appearance there over 10 years ago, in 2011.
In addition to referencing the upcoming midterm elections on November 8, Trump mentioned 2024 as well, raising potential further speculation that he is running for president once more, something that he has been hinting at for several months now. "They are going to find out the hard way starting on November 8, and then again even more so in November 2024," he told the crowd about his political opponents, "They will find out like never before. We did it twice, and we will do it again. We are going to be doing it again a third time," he said, also calling 2022 "the year that millions of everyday citizens stand up to the left-wing fascists."
Trump also went after his successor, President Joe Biden, who has given his critics, including and especially Trump, plenty of material. In this speech, this had particular relevance as it applies to America's position on the world stage.
"We also have to portray a strength to the outside world, otherwise they will walk all over you, and that is what they are doing right now," Trump argued.
In his remarks, Trump made the case that Biden has done more damage than even some of the other worse presidents in our nation's history. "You could take the five worst presidents in American history and put them together and they would not have done the damage that Joe Biden and his administration has done in just a very short 13 months," a line that crowd signaled their agreement with.
"And no matter how you look at it, our country has totally lost its self-confidence, lost its self-confidence, we have a country with no confidence anymore, but we will get it back and we will get it back stronger than ever before," Trump assured the crowd.
As I recently covered, Pew Research released a poll earlier this month showing that a plurality of respondents, at 43 percent, don't think Biden will be regarded as a successful president.
Shortly before the new year began, Marc Thiessen highlighted how Biden had the worst fall in support in the polls of any president. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the chair of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) likewise highlighted the president's polling numbers, at the one-year anniversary mark, which included a 33 percent approval rating from Quinnipiac.
The criticisms and concerns about Biden's handling of his job has extended to international concerns as well, including and especially as it relates to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump called the Russian invasion of Ukraine "appalling," as well as "an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur."
Trump also reminded the audience, though, that despite how "we had the Russia hoax" when he was president, and "the fake news would say Trump loves Russia," there was peace with Russia during the Trump administration.
He addressed his relationship with dictators such as Putin, as well as North Korea's Kim Jong-Un and China's Xi Jinping. "It's a good thing to get along with people," Trump reminded the crowd. "You can be very tough and get along." He also addressed the reality of how he was not only "very tough," but gave specifics, such as how he sanctioned the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, sharing with the audience how much Putin lamented those sanctions under Trump.
In contrast, Biden allowed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, while he signed an executive order on his first day in office to kill the Keystone XL pipeline. He only just recently sanctioned Nord Stream 2 earlier this week, after Germany had also moved to do so.
"But with respect to what is going on now, it would have been so easy for me to stop this travesty from happening. He understand me and he understood that I did not play games. This would not have happened."
As I mentioned in earlier coverage on Saturday, a Harvard Center for American Political Studies (CAPS)-Harris Poll released on Friday shows that a majority of respondents, at 62 percent, believe Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still in office.
A Twitter trend even reflected such a poll, with "62% of Americans."
Trump had some rather strong ideas as to why Putin invaded Ukraine, which included witnessing Biden's weakness in the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. "I have no doubt," Trump offered, "that President Putin made his decision to ruthlessly attack Ukraine only after watching the pathetic withdrawal from Afghanistan where the military was taken out first."
That above-mentioned poll also found that a majority, 59 percent, believe Putin invaded Ukraine because he saw weakness in Biden.
Another key theme of Trump's speech was to discuss how what's going on with both our neighbors to the north and the south, as a warning for the United States.
Trump has often reminded his audiences of his prioritizing safety at the southern border, and once more drew a contrast in this speech between "the most secure border in U.S. history" under his administration to "the stupidity of the open border concept" under Biden's.
As Guy reported earlier this month, "Illegal Crossings Explode, Deportations Plummet" under the Biden administration.
In this particular speech, Trump had further reason and relevance to bring it up. Once more speaking about Ukraine, the former president highlighted the hypocrisy of Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media who are concerned about Ukraine's sovereign borders, while ignoring the sovereignty of our own.
Trump highlighted how it's "interesting that so many Democrats in Washington seem to be rushing to microphones to declare that Ukraine's borders are sacred," a point they make "even while they are destroying our own borders and surrendering our own sovereignty."
The former president once more reiterated how crucial the issue is to him as he reminded the audience that "the most important duty of every elected lawmaker is to protect and defend America and that begins with protecting and defending our borders."
Trump also brought up Canada, and the plight peacefully protesting truckers who are part of the "Freedom Convoy" have endured under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. As Katie and I highlighted, Trudeau just recently rescinded the Emergencies Act on February 23, which he had invoked 9 days earlier, on February 14. It was the first time a prime minister had invoked the act.
Our northern neighbors were presented as a place where the Democrats should look to, if they "truly want to fight for democracy." Trump suggested the "radical Democrats" should "start with the democracy with the democracy that is under threat right next door, a place called Canada."
Trump declared that "the tyranny in Canada in recent weeks should shock and dismay people all over the world." He painted the picture of how "in an advanced western democracy, the peaceful movement of patriotic truckers, workers and families for their most basic rights and liberties has been violently put down."
As he shared what has happened to the truckers, who had their assets and savings as well as bank accounts frozen and were slandered by their own prime minister and others, Trump warned that "they are being hunted down like enemies of their own government and treated worse than drug dealers and murderers or rapists."
Trump had strong words as he declared that "a line has been crossed. You are either with the peaceful truckers or you are with the left-wing fascists, and that's what's been happening, and it's been a strong line. We stand with the truckers, and we stand with the Canadian people in their noble quest to reclaim their freedom," to much cheering and applause.
Trump also expressed concern that "the radical left is trying to replace American democracy with woke tyranny," as Trudeau has been doing, with the COVID mandates being one such example. Trump pointed out that "everyone here understands the COVID mandates are just one part of a much larger crisis."
The former president reminded the audience that "our mission in 2022 and 2024 is to take on the power-hungry ruling class and deliver them an electoral defeat so resounding that they are exiled into political oblivion, never ever to return again."
CPAC will conclude tomorrow afternoon.