Trump laughs off his week to forget
Donald Trump accused his opponents of targeting him with ‘‘b-------’’ as he hit out at the Russia investigation at the biggest conservative conference of the year in Washington.
The US president slipped into attack mode after a damaging week of accusations by Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, and the public humiliation of failed North Korea talks.
In his first public event since returning from the Vietnam summit, he took aim at his critics, saying: ‘‘We’re waiting for a report by people who weren’t elected ... And all of the sudden they try to take you out with b-------’’.
Referring to the special counsel leading the probe into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, he said: ‘‘Robert Mueller never received a vote and neither did the person who appointed him.’’
Trump went on to hit out at Democrats, saying: ‘‘They don’t have anything on Russia so they now morph into ’let’s inspect every deal he’s ever done’ ... they’re sick.’’
The president was back in reassuring surroundings with his most vocal allies, cracking jokes after a week in which his former lawyer’s explosive testimony dominated headlines at home and his summit with Kim Jong-un ended abruptly without agreement.
Diverting away from his nightmare week, Trump focused his speech on redmeat issues such as border security, second amendment gun rights and his ongoing trade war with China.
It was standing room only at the Gaylord Convention Centre, where thousands had amassed at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to hear the president speak.
‘‘You know I’m totally off-script right now? And this is how I got elected, by being off-script’’, he joked, to a standing ovation.
‘‘The Green New Deal or whatever the hell they call it ... it’s something they should promote,’’ he said, referring to a proposal by newly elected congressmen and promoted by many Democratic presidential candidates.
Drawing howls of laughter, Trump went on sarcastically: ‘‘They should stay with that argument and never change: no planes, no energy. When the wind stops blowing, that’s the end of your electric.’’
The speech echoed a common theme of the four-day conference – the conservative fight against socialism.
Sebastian Gorka, the British-born former White House adviser, took to the stage earlier in the week to warn that Democrats wanted to take away treasured American institution.
‘‘They want to take your pickup truck. They want to take away your hamburger,’’ he said. ‘‘This is what Stalin dreamed about but never achieved.’’
Gorka was referring to a quote in a fact sheet for the Green New Deal, a resolution co-sponsored by congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The document – now retracted – said the resolution aimed to reach net-zero, rather than zero emissions within 10 years ‘‘because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast’’. A spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez said it was clearly intended to be ironic, but conservatives seized on it, saying the Democrats want to get rid off cows and airplanes.
–Telegraph Group a