Excerpts from Donald Trump’s speech at CPAC 2021

In his usual fashion, former president Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on President Joe Biden, the Democrats, the Supreme Court, the media and reiterated the false claim of the 2020 US presidential elections being “rigged”, during the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday. 

Trump opened his speech in quite the Hollywood fashion, asking, “Do you miss me yet?” As the crowd cheered away, “Yes, we do.”

After paying his tributes to late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, Trump turned his attention to the Biden administration and said, “Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.”

Under the Democratic President, he said, “in just one month we have gone from AMERICA FIRST to AMERICA LAST.”

Meanwhile, he also clarified that he wasn’t starting a new party, and tagged those rumours as fake news.

“We are not starting new parties, they kept saying ‘he’s going to start a brand new party’ we have the Republican Party, it’s going to unite and be stronger than ever before — I am not starting a new party, that was fake news,” the former president said.

Initiating massive cheer from the conservatives, Trump then hinted at a possible rerun in the 2024 presidential elections.

“Who knows, I may even decide to beat them (Democrats) for a third time,” the 74-year-old said, yet again implying that he won the 2020 US Presidential elections.

He then lashed out at Biden’s immigration and border policies, saying, “he revoked an executive order cracking down on sanctuary cities has effectively ordered a shutdown of ICE, halting virtually all deportations.”

The former president said Biden of turning America into “a sanctuary nation”.

Talking about the reopening of schools, Trump said kids must get back to school ‘right now’.

He accused Biden of “selling out America’s children to the teachers’ unions.”

“Joe Biden has shamefully betrayed America’s youth and he is cruelly keeping our children locked in their homes, no reason for it whatsoever.”

Trump nitpicked every other policy of the Biden administration. Whether it be WHO entry, rejoining Paris Climate Accords, stance on Keystone XL pipeline or the President’s decision to allow trans individuals in women’s sports. 

The former president claimed Joe Biden himself and his administration are reaping the benefits of Trump’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan.

Talking about the November 2020 election results, he accused the courts of not having “guts or courage” to do anything about the “rigged” elections and called for ‘comprehensive election reform’.

Turning to his aides, Trump urged conservatives to unite and create a ‘great nation for all Americans’.

ALSO READ | CPAC 2021 Highlight: Trump ends speech, wonders which Republican will return to White House in 2024

“The mission of our movement and the Republican party must be to create a future of good jobs, strong families, safe communities, a vibrant culture and a great nation for all Americans and that’s what we are creating,” the former president said.

However, he also claimed that the Republicans would be down by 8-10 seats in Senate if not for his efforts.

“Because of my efforts campaigning, we had huge gains in the House and I helped keep many Senators in their seats … We’d be down 8-10 seats if I didn’t campaign,” Trump said.

Finally, ending his speech, Trump promised the crowd, “with your help” the Republicans will take back the House, win the Senate and a “Republican President will make a triumphant return to the White House” but he wondered, “who that will be!”