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Donald Trump headlined CPAC Texas, delivering a series of broadsides to the Biden administration to a packed arena at Dallas’s Hilton Anatole. The more than 2,500 seats were filled — with even more guests lining the aisles.
Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, was supposed to introduce the 45th president — but found herself bumped at the expense of Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, for reasons that remain unclear.
Prior to the former president’s speech, a short film played on the large TV monitors. “We are a nation in decline,” a Trump voiceover began. “We are a failing nation.” Gloomy black-and-white footage followed, accompanied by thunder and rain sounds. A screenshot of Trump’s suspended Twitter account was perhaps the most moving image.
Every cell phone in the room was in the air as the former president entered to “Proud to Be an American,” standing motionless at the podium for the entire duration of the song. “The proud patriots here today are the beating heart of the conservative movement,” he began.
Early on, Trump shouted out a number of MAGA members of Congress who were present — including Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Of his former doctor Ronny Jackson, now a Texas congressman, he said, “He loved looking at my body, it was so strong.”
Trump reminisced about assassinated Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he was friendly. “He’s on greener fairways now — he loved golf… we played golf…”
He then described his new Hispanic supporters as “hard-working” and “unbelievable.” “Viva Trump!” came the yells from the back of the room.
It wasn’t long before Trump turned his sights from his friends to his enemies. “Crazy Nancy Pelosi — what was she doing? Everything she touches turns to…”
“Shit,” cried the crowd.
He then focused on the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which was being voted on in the Senate concurrently with his address. “Joe Manchin has totally sold West Virginia out,” he said, before claiming of both Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, “if this deal passes, they will both lose their next election.”
He railed against “old broken crow” Mitch McConnell for trusting Manchin, before offering musings on Joe Biden, inflation, the border, his Remain-in-Mexico policy… and then reverting to more contentious themes.
“The election was rigged and stolen…,” he said to applause.
“I ran twice, I won twice, and I did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions and millions of more votes than I did in 2016, more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country. And now we may have to do again, we may have to do it again.”
Staying on domestic issues, Trump said, “Our country is now a cesspool of crime.”
The streets of our Democrat-run cities are drenched with the blood of innocent victims, gun battles rage between blood thirsty street gangs, bullets tear into crowds at random killing wonderful, beautiful little children that never even had a chance.
For possible solutions to America’s rising crime, the former president turned to an unlikely source: Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party.
“You could go all over Hollywood, you couldn’t find an actor to play President Xi,” he said, before speaking with admiration about Xi’s approach to drugs — instituting the death penalty for drug dealers after a “quick trial!”
I said, “President, do you have a drug problem in China?” “No, no. No, I don’t have a… Why would we have a drug problem?” I said, “Well, what do you do?” “Oh, quick trial. Quick trial.” I said, “What’s a quick trial.” A quick trial is to bring drug dealers quickly to trial, and if they’re guilty, it’s immediate execution.
He went on:
You need the death penalty for drug dealers. Drugs will go down immediately by 50 percent and probably more. But you have to mean it, and you have to mean it. When you look at China and other places, they don’t have a problem. If they had that problem, they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing right now, and they weren’t. They had this problem many, many decades ago, and other countries far smaller were able to invade them and take them over because everybody was suffering from drugs, and they said, “We can’t do this.”
It’s not very politically correct to say it, but you’ll save millions and millions of lives.
Trump also covered homelessness, the intersection of violent crime and immigration, critical race theory and education. He then moved on to a new theme that’s emerged in recent rally speeches: “Keep men out of women’s sports.” Trump summoned University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed against Penn’s Lia Thomas, up on stage. “This is our real champion,” he said. After being offered the mic, Gaines kept it brief, advocating to “keep female sports female.” Trump drew her into an embrace and said, “Just to show you how ridiculous it is, look at me, I’m much bigger and much stronger than her. There’s no way she could beat me in swimming, do we all agree?”
He described the events of January 6, “a protest over a rigged and stolen election that no one wants to look at” — and then launched into a physical comedy routine based on Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony of him attempting to seize the wheel of the Beast and throwing food at the wall of the Oval Office.
Later, Trump floated the idea, per a “friend” that he was the most persecuted person in American history.
A friend of mine recently said that I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country. And then I thought about it, because I didn’t have time to think much, because I’m always being persecuted, and I felt he may very well be right. What a terrible thing.
The Native Americans and slaves were unavailable for comment.
Despite the hopes of many in the room, Trump didn’t announce a 2024 run, keeping allusions to the coming presidential election vague by saying the GOP should “continue onwards with the unstoppable momentum” generated from a win this November and pledging that “we will soon have that greatness again.”
After close to two hours, the former president left the stage and the masses filtered out of the room. His most diehard supporters, and the media, will have to keep waiting for Trump to fully reenter the fray.
