Donald Trump praises Russian President Vladimir Putin, revives election lies
Donald Trump has emerged from political exile to laud Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s intellect, while blasting President Joe Biden and NATO.
Donald Trump emerged from political exile on Saturday to blast President Joe Biden and NATO over the Ukraine crisis, as well as reprising his false claims of a stolen 2020 election.
Speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, the former president spent 86 minutes reprising his favourite applause lines, assailing the “radical left” and its “witch-hunt” against him.
As massive explosions lit up the sky over Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, Mr Trump blamed Russia’s invasion of its neighbour on Mr Biden’s “weakness” and lavished praise on President Vladimir Putin’s intellect.
“As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged,” he said, to rapt applause.
NATO, he said, was “looking the opposite of smart” for hitting Russia with sanctions rather than resolving to “blow (Russia) to pieces – at least psychologically”.
“The problem is not that Putin is smart, which of course he’s smart,” he went on, “but the real problem is that our leaders are so dumb.”
After Mr Trump’s year largely out of the public eye, his ecstatic reception left little doubt the Republican Party remains in thrall to the twice-impeached, single-term president.
There were chants of “four more years” from supporters in red “Make America Great Again” hats, who clapped on cue as Mr Trump railed against “woke tyranny” and “cancel culture”. The crowd reserved its largest cheers for the 75-year-old’s dismissal of Democrat claims to be the party of democracy as “bullshit” and for his claim that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg “used to come to the White House and kiss my ass”.
There were nods to a possible 2024 run – “we did it twice and we’ll do it again”, he claimed, falsely recasting his 2020 defeat as a victory – although he left people guessing on whether he would himself challenge Mr Biden.
CPAC, the country’s largest conservative gathering, usually offers valuable insight into the direction the Republicans plan to take over coming months.
Mr Trump had been expected to lay out a forward-looking “vision for America”, according to organisers, as the Republicans look to take back control of congress in the November mid-terms.
Instead he dwelt at length on his 2020 loss and false claims of widespread voter fraud, urging the crowd to “fight like hell” or face their country being destroyed.
It was similar to the rhetoric that inspired a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, for which he was punished with his second impeachment.
Mr Trump called besieged President Volodymyr Zelensky “a brave man”, falsely claiming the Ukrainian leader had exonerated him over the scandal that led to his first impeachment.
AFP
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