Trump takes early lead for another run at White House
Fervent support at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference made former US president Donald Trump the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
He was given a hero’s welcome barely a month after leaving office and weeks after the Senate failed to convict him in his second impeachment trial.
In a 90-minute speech, Mr Trump said “the incredible journey we’ve begun four years ago” is “far from being over”, all but declaring his intent to run for the Republican nomination and ruling out rumours that he may seek to start a new party.
Throughout the speech, he insisted he won the election, repeating his unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud.
“As you know, they just lost the White House,” Mr Trump said. “It’s one of those things. But who knows? I may even decide to beat them for a third time.”
He did not address how his conspiracy theory prompted supporters to storm Capitol Hill in a failed bid to keep Congress from certifying the election results.
But Mr Trump did name Republican legislators who voted to impeach him for allegedly inciting the failed insurrection, reserving most of his ire for Liz Cheney, the House’s third highest-ranking Republican.
He also berated the Supreme Court justices who last year threw out an election fraud case filed by Texas and other Republican-led states.
Mr Trump did not attack House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who also spoke at the conference, despite a heated phone argument between the two men during the January 6 riot.
The Republican leader tried to convince Mr Trump to call off his supporters’ siege of the Capitol.
While several other leading Republicans who could be contenders for the 2024 nomination attended the conference, many of the high-profile speakers repeated Mr Trump’s election fraud claims, showing the grip the former president still has on the Republican Party.
A poll conducted by The Washington Times found that 68 per cent of attendees wanted Mr Trump to run for president again in 2024, while 95 per cent said they wanted the Republican nominee to continue his policies and agenda.
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, polled just behind Mr Trump.
Although CPAC typically convenes in Washington, the organisers held it in Orlando, Florida, this year because of restrictions on indoor gatherings in the capital during the pandemic.
Other speakers included former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz, the senator.
The venue had a statue of Mr Trump that was painted gold, and the crowd enthusiastically greeted the former president’s speech with chants of “We love you” and “You won”.
Aside from his voter fraud claims, Mr Trump used his speech to launch into several of the culture-war issues that propelled him to the White House in 2016, heavily criticising Mr Biden for his immigration policies and school closures amid the pandemic.
“In just one short month, we have gone from America first to America last,” he said.
Mr Trump also attacked Mr Biden on Iran, saying that “the new administration unilaterally withdrew our crippling sanctions in Iran, foolishly giving away all of America’s leverage before negotiations have even begun”.
Mr Biden has kept the Trump sanctions regime on Iran in place, insisting that he will not lift them until Iran returns to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
The Biden administration did reverse the Trump administration’s position at the UN regarding multilateral snapback sanctions on Iran.
But those sanctions never went into effect under either administration because of the Security Council’s position that the US had no authority to initiate snapback UN sanctions on Iran because it had withdrawn from the nuclear agreement.
The conference centre had a statue of Mr Trump that was painted gold. ‘We love you,’ chanted the crowd