Trump attacks Republican "fools" at US conservative high mass

With the 2024 presidential election approaching, Donald Trump warned on Saturday that he was the only candidate capable of saving the United States from the "warmongering" Democrats as well as the "fanatics and fools" of the Republican Party, during the annual high mass of American conservatives gathered in Washington

Trump attacks Republican "fools" at US conservative high mass

With the 2024 presidential election approaching, Donald Trump warned on Saturday that he was the only candidate capable of saving the United States from the "warmongering" Democrats as well as the "fanatics and fools" of the Republican Party, during the annual high mass of American conservatives gathered in Washington.

Invoking a nation on its knees, the former president of the United States said that Americans were in the middle of "an epic fight to save our country from the people who hate it", on the last day of CPAC, a major convention organized politics this week in the suburbs of Washington.

Donald Trump, who formalized his candidacy in November for the presidential election next year, spoke for almost an hour and forty, sparing no one, including his own camp.

"We had a Republican Party run by freaks, neo-conservatives, globalists, bigoted open borders and jerks," he said, citing several party luminaries by name.

American voters, Trump said, are tired of "ingrained bipartisan political dynasties, rotten special interests, China-loving politicians" and supporters of "endless foreign wars."

"We're going to have a third world war if something doesn't happen soon," he warned after openly disapproving of US aid to Ukraine.

"I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent World War III", assured the ex-president, defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.

CPAC was until recently the main gathering of conservative leaders in the United States, but it has been entirely swallowed up by Donald Trump's far-right 'Make America Great Again' movement, with experts now calling the "MAGApalooza" event.

"We're going to finish what we started," Donald Trump told the crowd, who in response sang, "Four more years, four more years!"

CPAC 2023 was marked by many speaking engagements from some of the nation's most committed Trumpists, even though many potential 2024 candidates and Republican leaders skipped the convention.

If the relevance of this gathering is not unanimous among the conservatives, to the point that certain interventions were almost deserted, the rows of the room were well filled during the speech of Donald Trump.

Essentially, the ex-president repeated the same litany of conspiracy theories on electoral fraud and American justice, acquired according to him from the "radical left", which he dusts off at each public appearance.

At CPAC, hats, flags, mugs and other items were on sale. Goodies almost all exclusively aimed at Trump loyalists.

Before Donald Trump spoke, a number of speakers took to the stage to extol their Christian principles and, throughout their speeches, conspiracy theories and anti-transgender rhetoric.

Republican Florida Governor Ron De Santis and Donald Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence skipped the event, sparing themselves boos from the former president's fans .

But the crowd repeatedly heckled her only declared Republican rival in the race for the White House, Nikki Haley, during and after her appearance at the convention on Friday.

“It will not be a fair election,” Trumpist conspiracy entrepreneur Mike Lindell told AFP of the 2024 presidential election.

"But when 90% of the people in this country want Donald Trump, he should win anyway, even with a crooked election," he added.

Before taking the stage, Trump said he had won the convention's opinion poll of Republican leaders, with 62 percent of the vote. Far ahead of his rival Ron De Santis, who only won 20% of the vote.

"In 2016 I declared: I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution", launched Mr. Trump in front of a packed house.

05/03/2023 06:52:25 - National Harbor (United States) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP