At his first public appearance in the capital Washington since leaving office, former US President Donald Trump accused the current administration of failure. "Quite simply, we made America great again," Trump said. "But now our country has literally been brought to its knees — and who would have thought that could happen," said the Republican at a policy speech on Tuesday afternoon (local time).
The 76-year-old cited the high inflation rate, high fuel prices and an "invasion" by millions of migrants as examples. In his hour-and-a-half speech, Trump blamed his successor Joe Biden from the Democratic Party. "We are a country in decline," said the right-wing populist. "We are a failing nation."
However, Trump focused his speech on the topic of internal security. "Our country and the lives of our citizens are at stake and we have no time to waste. Our country is in a criminal state like we have never seen before," he said without providing any evidence.
Trump delivered his speech at a conference at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former election officials to advance Trump's policies. It was his first appearance in Washington since leaving the capital hours before Joe Biden was inaugurated as US President on January 20, 2021.
The parliamentary committee of inquiry into the Capitol attack, which examines the events of January 6, 2021 and focuses in particular on the role played by the ex-president and his staff, sharply criticized Trump — and once again described himself as a victim of political persecution. "If I gave up my beliefs, if I stayed silent, stayed at home and played it easy, the persecution of Donald Trump would stop immediately. But I won't do that," he said. "Everything this corrupt establishment does to me is to maintain their power and control over the American people. They want to harm you in some form. They really want to harm me so I can't work for you anymore. And I don't think that's going to happen." The crowd responded with chants of "Four more years," a common US slogan for another term.
Trump again only spoke indirectly about a possible re-run in the 2024 presidential elections: he won his first candidacy in 2016 and did even “much better” in the second candidacy in 2020, he called out to his supporters. "We may just have to do it again. We have to put our country back in order." In the "coming weeks and months" he wants to present "many more details", the Republican said after he spoke about his 2016 election victory and again falsely claimed that he also won the 2020 election. To this day, Trump refuses to acknowledge his defeat by Biden and also spoke of electoral fraud in his speech in Washington.
Since his deselection, Trump has repeatedly flirted with a renewed candidacy and fueled speculation. A second term as president in the USA is also possible if the two periods do not follow each other directly. Trump would be 78 years old when elected in just over two and a half years.
Biden reacted with sharp criticism to Trump's speech on Tuesday. "Call me old fashioned but I don't think inciting a mob to attack cops constitutes 'respect for the law,'" the president wrote on Twitter. People shouldn't forget that Trump watched the January 6 violence and "didn't have the backbone" to act.
While Trump is still the strongman among the Republicans, he is not uncontroversial or unrivaled among the Conservative Party either. Many other Republicans are flirting with a presidential candidacy in 2024. Potential candidates include Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis.
Pence also gave a speech in Washington on Tuesday, albeit at a different think tank, the conservative Heritage Foundation. Last Friday, Trump and Pence appeared in parallel at events in the US state of Arizona. Both Republicans campaigned there for competing party colleagues in the race for the governorship. Observers took this as a sign that Pence wants to distance himself from his former boss, as both could aspire to run for the White House in 2024.
