[ad_1]
WASHINGTON: Former President Donald Trump on Sunday (February 28) hinted at a possible run for the presidency again in 2024, attacked President Joe Biden, and repeated his fraudulent claims that he won the 2020 election in his first major appearance since nearly left the White House. six weeks ago.
“Our movement of proud, hardworking American patriots is just getting started, and in the end we will win. We will win,” Trump said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
By refusing to admit he lost the November 3 presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump offered a withering critique of his Democratic successor’s first weeks in office and suggested that he might run again.
“They just lost the White House,” the former Republican president said after criticizing Biden’s handling of border security. “But who knows, who knows, he might even decide to beat them a third time.”
READ: Again acquitted by the Senate, Trump remains a powerful force in Republican politics
LEE: Trump seeks to return to the center of attention with a speech at a conservative meeting
Trump’s tumultuous final weeks in office saw his supporters launch a deadly attack on the United States Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory, a victory that Trump falsely claimed was it was tainted by widespread fraud.
A civil war has broken out within the Republican Party with establishment figures like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell eager to put Trump in the rearview mirror and others, like Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, believing that the The party’s future depends on the energy of the pro-Trump conservative. base.
Trump declared that the Republican Party is united and said he had no plans to try to launch a third, an idea he has discussed with advisers in recent months.
“We are not starting new parties. We have the Republican Party. It is going to be united and stronger than ever. I am not going to start a new party,” he said.
READ: Comment: How is Donald Trump getting away with inciting attacks on the United States Capitol?
The results of an opinion poll of CPAC conference participants gave Trump a strong show of support with 55 percent saying they would vote for him in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in second with 21 percent.
Without Trump, DeSantis led the field with 43 percent, and other potential Republican candidates were in single digits.
But not everyone supported Trump. A separate question in the poll asked whether Trump should run again in 2024 and resulted in a mixed result, with 68% saying he should run and 32% opposing or having no opinion.
“It’s hard to get seven out of 10 to agree on anything,” pollster Jim McLaughlin told CPAC when explaining the results.
Still, Trump’s fervor at the four-day CPAC event has been so strong that Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, declared him “T-PAC” and participants displayed a golden statue of the former president.
In the short term, he is making plans to establish a super PAC political organization to support candidates who reflect his policies, an adviser said.
Starting his speech more than an hour late, Trump said he wanted to save America’s culture and identity.
He tried to position himself as the main critic of the new president, including on immigration and security along the United States border with Mexico, and the slow reopening of schools closed due to the pandemic.
“Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history,” Trump said.
Recent polls have given Biden a job approval rating well above 50 percent, a strong sample of Americans.
The Biden White House has made clear that it plans to ignore Trump’s speech.
“Certainly our focus is not on what President Trump says” at CPAC, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters last week.
