meIn his first speech in Washington since losing a second term as president, Donald Trump let loose some big autocratic ideas about how to run America. Referring to his written comments, Trump said the administration should “remove” thousands of homeless Americans and put them in tents on “large parcels of cheap land on the outskirts of cities” with “permanent bathrooms” and “medical professionals.” “. He said the United States should “execute” drug traffickers, praised the way China prosecutes criminals and called for a “return to stop-and-frisk policies in cities.” If he were still running the country, he said, he would override governors and mayors and send the National Guard to neighborhoods with high crime rates.
The former president exposed a dark vision of the country since he left office. “We are a war zone,” he said, adding: “There is no respect for the law anymore and there is certainly no order. Our country is now a cesspool of crime.”
He also repeated the lie that he won the 2020 election. After noting that he ran for president the first time and won, he continued, “I won a second time, I did much better the second time. He did much better. He did much better. Very corrupt.” Trump said he thought Richard Nixon, who resigned from the presidency in disgrace after abusing his power in office, “was always sorry he didn’t fight back.”
Trump all but confirmed that he plans to run for president in 2024. As an audience of about 800 people in the packed hotel ballroom chanted, “Four more years,” Trump said the country was preparing for “an incredible comeback” if the Republicans take back Congress. and the White House. “I’m doing it for America and it’s an honor for me to do it,” Trump said of considering running again for president. “If I don’t, our nation is doomed.”
Hovering over Trump’s comments was the work of the Jan. 6 committee, which concluded a series of revealing hearings last week that offered evidence of how Trump’s actions led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill. the final hearing on Thursday focused on how Trump spent more than three hours that day refusing to calm his supporters, who had turned into a violent mob. Trump defended those who had been indicted for their role in the Capitol takeover, saying they were being “so horribly tortured and manipulated.” “People aren’t going to take it much longer,” Trump said, echoing justifications he has given in the past for his supporters to turn violent.
Trump was the last speaker at a summit organized by the America First Policy Institute on how to extend his agenda into the future. Somehow, the two-day summit had all the hallmarks of a traditional Washington political event with panel discussions on health care policy, surveillance and national security. Policy documents were stacked on the tables. One article was titled “Swamp Tales: How Federal Bureaucrats Took Up President Trump.” The 35-page report details the ways officials blocked or delayed policies Trump wanted done and he called on Congress to empower presidents to fire officials more easily.
For people who had worked in the Trump White House, it had the feel of a high school reunion. Between events, former Trump campaign manager and White House aide Kellyanne Conway greeted former White House colleagues including press aide Hogan Gidley and former senior Trump speechwriter and senior adviser Stephen Miller. Also in attendance was former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is running for governor in Arkansas.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House, sat down for a chat with Newt Gingrich, who led a Republican surge in the House in the early 1990s to become House Speaker. McCarthy believes he will replace Nancy Peloi as speaker next year and predicts Republicans will take control of the House by midterm. “We can secure a conservative majority for the decade,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy made no mention of Trump’s actions during or before the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill, which he slammed in the days after. Speaking on the House floor on Jan. 13, 2021, McCarthy said Trump “bears responsibility” for the deadly riot. “He should have immediately sued the mob when he saw what was unfolding,” McCarthy said at the time.
Trump’s return to Washington on Tuesday did not go unnoticed by the rest of the city. Before Trump took the stage, a van surrounded the hotel with a giant screen reading “Biden won the election with 81,000 votes (the most in history)” “Welcome back to Washington, DC Trump, you lost.” Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence was at another hotel in the area, heading to the National Conference of Conservative Students organized by the Young America Foundation, where he vehemently criticized Trump’s electoral denials. Elections should be about the future, he said, and Republicans shouldn’t “look back.”
Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin, next week to support his pick for Wisconsin governor, Tim Michels. Michaels has refused to acknowledge that Biden won Wisconsin.
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