Trump tears into Biden as he moves toward 2024 campaign

Former President Trump inched closer on Saturday to a 2024 comeback campaign, delivering a speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in which he hammered President Biden and congressional Democrats on everything from the conflict in Ukraine to their handling of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In a sprawling tirade that stretched for more than an hour, Trump repeated his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him and railed against what he described as an inefficient federal government obsessed with political correctness and dominated by weak leadership that failed to deter the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all,” Trump said to a doting audience in Orlando, Fla. “They are indeed brave. As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our elections were not rigged and if I was the president.”

Trump also repeatedly signaled that 2024 is still on his mind. At several points in his address, he implied that he was still the rightful president of the United States and suggested that a 2024 presidential bid remains very much on the table.

Trump’s speech came near the tail end of CPAC, which is set to end Sunday afternoon. And despite his status as the loser of the 2020 presidential election, the gathering underscored the vise grip he retains over the conservative grassroots. 

Throughout the conference, attendees repeatedly expressed a desire for Trump to run for the White House again in 2024. Ahead of his speech on Saturday, droves of eager onlookers filed into the main conference room, hoping to catch a glimpse of the former president.

Trump attended a reception with supporters before making his remarks, during which he offered no further information about his 2024 ambitions aside from saying that his allies would be “very happy” with his decision.

His speech was billed by CPAC’s organizers as a chance for Trump to present his vision for the U.S. ahead of a potential 2024 presidential campaign, but the former president largely stuck to his typical talking points, including railing against so-called woke American culture and calling for the completion of his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border

In his address, Trump also tore into Democrats over coronavirus-related mandates and praised “certain Republican governors” for their handling of the pandemic, though he didn’t mention Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) by name, despite DeSantis’s status as the face of conservative opposition to COVID-19 restrictions.

“I can tell you that the Republican governors did quite well, thank you,” Trump said. “The emergency is over, and we will submit to this left-wing tyranny no longer.”

DeSantis, the most notable of several potential 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls who delivered speeches during the four-day gathering before Trump’s address, was the center of attention at the conference on Thursday.

Trump has repeatedly floated the notion of a 2024 comeback bid for the presidency, though it’s unclear if he’s made up his mind on a run. Still, he’s made clear that should he mount another bid for the White House, he believes he should be the presumptive GOP nominee. 

His political ambitions were on display on Saturday as he projected Republican victories in the 2022 midterm elections, slated for Nov. 8, as well as in the 2024 presidential election, when Biden will once again be on the ballot.

“They’re going to find out the hard way starting Nov. 8 and even more so starting November 2024,” Trump said of Democrats’ chances in the elections.

“We’re going to kick the Biden crime family out of the White House in 2024,” he said.