TRUMP LISTS REPUBLICANS HE’LL BE TARGETING
Ex-president returns to political stage at CPAC conference
Taking the stage for the first time since leaving office, former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for GOP unity even as he attacked fellow Republicans in a speech that made clear he intends to remain a dominant political force.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump blasted his successor, President Joe Biden, and tried to lay out a vision for the future of the GOP that revolves around him.
“Do you miss me yet?” Trump said after taking the stage to his old rally soundtrack and cheers from the supportive crowd.
Trump unfurled an enemies list, calling out by name the 10 House Republicans and seven GOP senators who voted to impeach or convict him on the charge of inciting the U.S. Capitol riot. He ended by singling out Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, who has faced backlash in Wyoming for saying Trump should no longer play a role in the party or headline the event.
While he insisted the division was merely a spat “between a handful of Washington, D.C., establishment political hacks and everybody else, all over the country,” Trump had a message for the incumbents who had crossed him: “Get rid of ’em all.”
The conference, held this year in Orlando instead of the Washington suburbs to evade COVID-19 restrictions, served as a tribute to Trump and Trumpism, complete with a golden statue in his likeness on display. Speakers, including many potential 2024 hopefuls, argued that the party must embrace the former president and his followers.
They repeated in panel after panel his claims that he lost re-election because of mass voter fraud, even though such claims have been rejected by judges, Republican officials and Trump’s own administration.
Trump, too, continued to repeat what Democrats have dubbed the “big lie,” calling the election “rigged.”
He delivered a sharp rebuke of what he framed as the new administration’s first month of failures, especially Biden’s approach to immigration and the border.
“Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history,” Trump said.
Aside from criticizing Biden, Trump used the speech to crown himself the future of the Party, even as many leaders argue they must move in a new direction after Republicans lost the White House and both houses of Congress.
Though Trump has flirted with the the idea of creating a third party, he pledged Sunday to remain part of “our beloved” GOP.
“I’m going to continue to fight right by your side. We’re not starting new parties,” he said. “We have the Republican Party. It’s going to be strong and united like never before.”
Yet Trump spent much of the speech lashing out at those he has deemed insufficiently loyal and dubbed “RINOs” — Republican in name only — for failing to stand with him.
“We cannot have leaders who show more passion for condemning their fellow Americans than they have ever shown for standing up to Democrats, the media and the radicals who want to turn America into a socialist country,” Trump said.
Trump did not use his speech to announce plans to run again, but he repeatedly teased the prospect as he predicted a Republican would win back the White House in 2024.
“And I wonder who that will be,” he asked. “Who, who, who will that be? I wonder.”
It remains unclear, however, how much appetite there would be for another Trump term, even in the room of staunch supporters.
The conference’s unscientific straw poll of just over 1,000 attendees found that 97 percent approved of the job Trump did as president. But they were more ambiguous when asked whether he should run again, with 68 percent saying he should.
If the 2024 primary were held today and Trump were in the race, 55 percent said they would vote for him, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 21 percent. Without Trump in the field, DeSantis garnered 43 percent support, followed by 8 percent for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and 7 percent each for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.