AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
On Saturday, 45th President and 2024 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump returned to a hero’s welcome at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, where he once again delivered the keynote address. Trump’s speech marked his first CPAC appearance as a declared 2024 presidential candidate.
In a nearly two-hour speech, Trump cemented his status as the leader of the Republican Party and catalogued his campaign’s growing list of “bold, detailed” policies to build on the historic achievements of his first term and guide the country back to national greatness. “There is only one President in history who has ever taken on the entire corrupt establishment in Washington. And when we win in 2024, we will do it again even stronger, faster and better,” Trump said to roaring applause.
In his remarks, Trump articulated the historically high stakes of the 2024 presidential election, declaring that the United States is in the midst of “an epic struggle to rescue our country from the people who hate it and want to absolutely destroy it.” Nevertheless, Trump said, “we are going to finish what we started. We’re going to complete the mission. We’re going to see this battle through to ultimate victory. We’re going to make America great again.”
Since he announced his candidacy last November, Trump has rolled out a series of major policy plans, many of which he reprised in his Saturday speech. He promised, for instance, to end the illegal immigration crisis induced by Biden’s open border policies. “When I am back in the White House, the very first reconciliation bill I sign will be for a massive increase in border patrol, and a colossal increase in the number of ICE deportation officers,” Trump said of his plan to secure the southern border, before calling for “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” The former president also pledged to crack down on juvenile criminals convicted of crimes like carjacking, to create “tent cities” to relocate the homeless and “deranged” off our streets, and to send in federal assets to cities experiencing a “breakdown” of public safety.
In one of his more memorable lines of the night, Trump vowed to take on the federal bureaucracy, wage war on the censorship regime, and end the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice and FBI. “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.” He also doubled down on his promises to revoke Joe Biden’s executive order installing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion czars in federal agencies, rescind every Biden policy that enables castration of children, and support the direct election of school principals by parents.
In one of his most visionary policy proposals to date, Trump called for the creation of “freedom cities” and the launch of a beautification campaign to root out ugly architecture and once again promote beauty in the public square. “We will hold a competition to build new freedom cities on the frontier to give countless Americans a new shot at home ownership and the American dream,” Trump said. “We will rename our schools and boulevards not after communists but after great American patriots. We will get rid of bad and ugly buildings and return to the magnificent classical style of western civilization.”
Additionally, Trump said he would bring a swift end to the conflict in Ukraine upon his return to the Oval Office. “I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent World War Three,” he said, citing his status as the only president in recent history to not drag the U.S. into any new wars.
“We will expel the warmongers. They are people that don’t get it… We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the Communists. We will throw off the political class that hates our country,” Trump said.
Just prior to Trump’s remarks, CPAC released the results of its annual straw poll for the GOP presidential nomination, which Trump won overwhelmingly with 62 percent of the vote—up three percent from the straw poll in February 2022—further solidifying his status as the party’s leader and 2024 frontrunner. The former president beat out potential challengers like Ron DeSantis, who came in second with 20 percent, and declared candidate Nikki Haley, who finished with only three percent.
And as the American people become increasingly disillusioned by the Biden administration’s mounting heap of crises, it’s no wonder Trump’s popularity is soaring. As such, for potential primary contenders considering whether to throw their hats in the ring and take on Trump, Saturday’s speech serves as a resounding reminder that Donald Trump remains the undisputed leader of the GOP—and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
