Former President Donald Trump recently bragged about his White House experience and made a promise to “deal with the RINOs” as part of a marathon speech that started on Saturday while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was able to secure the 2024 presidential straw poll.
Trump seemed quite excited to deal with a number of issues with members of both parties in the wake of his very turbulent first time and his loss in the well-known re-election loss that took place in 2020. Labeling the 2024 contest “the final battle,” Trump was sure to acknowledge that he is much wiser now regarding the way Washington Works.
“We’ll appropriately deal with the RINOs,” he expressed, seemingly making reference to “Republicans In Name Only.” ” We will never go back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and Jeb Bush.”
Trump managed to secure a whopping 62% of those who responded at the annual straw poll from the event, which was held out in Fort Washington, MD. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also elected to not attend the meeting despite securing second place with 20%, and thirds place went to Michigan billionaire Perry Johnson.
Chants of "Four more years!" erupt at CPAC during Trump's speech. pic.twitter.com/e11nQaD4Zn
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 4, 2023
The heavy support for Johnson, whose bid to serve as the governor of Michigan ended up being canceled last year prior to the actual general election, seemed to be a blow to various other Republicans that have also announced or are thought to be thinking about announcing runs, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, ex-UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. DeSantis has not yet announced a bid for the 2024 race but is expected by most to make such an announcement in the coming months.
As part of a separate poll when it comes to vice president, Kari Lake, who failed to secure the governor’s race for Arizona this past year, was at the heal with a support rate of 20%, followed directly by DeSantis who was sitting at 14%. More than 2,000 people in attendance were part of the poll, as reported by its organizers.
This strong showing from Trump while attending CPAC was somewhat to be expected as the annual gathering of conservatives attracts a large number of activists from the “MAGA” wing of the GOP. Many of the other possible candidates from the GOP, which includes DeSantis, chose to attend an even which overlaps CPAC, a three-day Club for Growth event in Palm Beach, Florida. That particular event, to which Trump was pointedly not invited, was a major attraction for the GOP donors.
In his close to two to two-hour speech, Trump issued a warning that a number of his possible primary competitors could end up supporting reforms to systems such as Medicare and Social Security.
“We are never going back to the people that want to destroy our great social security system … even some in our own party, I wonder who that might be,” he stated.
Trump issued a warning that the U.S. could end up headed back to World War II because of the expansion of the ongoing war in Ukraine and expressed that he thought he could end up being key to creating a peace deal with Russia. Trump has also made to to hurl criticism at the nonstop investigations and prosecutions that have been turned to target him directly, including a current broke into his possible role within the Potential role for the January 6 riot, separate cases against him in New York and Georgia, and the raid thgat was carried out by the FBI against his home in Mar-a-Lago back in august.
“Every time the polls get higher and higher, the prosecutors get crazier and crazier,” stated Trump. “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you, and that’s why I’m standing here today. I’m standing before you because we’re going to finish what we started. We’re going to complete the mission.”
