Trump hugs Old Glory, blasts Biden in CPAC speech: ‘You’re fired!’
Former president Donald Trump smooched the American flag and gave Old Glory his trademark bear hug Saturday during a speech that ignored his GOP primary rival, Nikki Haley, to pivot toward his likely general election rematch with President Biden.
“Remember ‘The Apprentice’?” Trump asked, recalling his hit TV show.
“Crooked Joe Biden — you’re fired! Get the hell out of here,” he said, to cheers.
“Our country is being destroyed and the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me,” Trump told the crowd of about 1,500 revved-up Republicans who interrupted him periodically with chants of “We want Trump!” at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, D.C.
“If crooked Joe Biden and his thugs win in 2024, the worst is yet to come,” Trump warned.
“He’s the crookedest, most incompetent president in the history of our country,” he said. “Crooked Joe and his henchmen have you trapped, and it’s an express train barreling toward servitude and ruin.”
“I stand before you today not only as your past and hopefully future president, but as a proud political dissident,” he added.
But despite the dark tone of his comments about Biden’s failures, Trump seemed energetic and jocular throughout the 90-minute speech, which included lengthy comedic digressions about his presidency.
“Nobody can ramble like this,” he commented proudly, as he bashed Biden for his scripted exchanges with the press.
“By the way, isn’t this better than reading off a freaking teleprompter?” he asked. “Anybody can do that — except for Biden.”
The speech came as South Carolina Republicans voted in their state’s GOP primary — a race that surveys indicated would be another commanding victory for the former president.
“Now I’m going to South Carolina,” Trump said as he wrapped up.
“I am supposed to be there, and I’m not there,” he noted. “And if I do poorly I’m going to blame everybody in this audience.”
He jokingly told CPAC attendees from the Palmetto State to “get out and vote. Get in your car and drive fast” – but didn’t bother to mention Haley, his former UN ambassador, after defeating her soundly in the first four contests of the GOP presidential race.
Trump leads Haley by an overwhelming 59 points among Republicans nationally, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average — and has maintained a narrow but consistent national lead over Biden since October. Trump told supporters in a series of emails Saturday that he planned to shift his focus away from the GOP battle and toward the general election — proclaiming, “Trump was right about everything.”