‘Time to get brutally tough, we’re going to hell fast’: Donald Trump

Addressing a pro-Republican rally, Donald Trump paints a dire picture of a US in decline and urges the execution of drug dealers.

Donald Trump speaks at the America First Agenda Summit in Washington. Picture; AFP.

Donald Trump has attacked the “thugs and hacks” trying to destroy him politically in a long, dark address in Washington, urging a federal government takeover of law and order to combat rising crime if Republicans take control of congress in November.

In his first speech in the US capital since leaving office in January 2021, Mr Trump dropped several hints that the growing cloud over his behaviour on January 6th wouldn’t stop him running again for president in 2024, as he painted a dire picture of a US in decline and decay under Democrat rule.

“It’s time to get brutally tough … Our country is going to hell and it’s going to hell very fast,” Mr Trump said, recounting sometimes gruesome anecdotes of murders and rapes as the US battles a surge in violent crime, arguing the nation had become a “cesspool of crime” and a “war zone” since he left office.

“They want to damage me so I can no longer work for you, and I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he added, to chants of “four more years” at a pro-Republican America First Policy Institute Summit in downtown Washington.

The former president, speaking a few hours after his former deputy, Mike Pence, delivered his own speech to the Republican faithful across town, ignored allegations from the high-powered Congressional Committee, aired last week, that he did nothing to stop the January 6th riots in a bid to overturn the 2020 election result.

“Our biggest threat remains the sick, sinister, and evil people from within our country, they‘re a bigger threat than the outside threat..,” he said, referring to ruling Democrats who have accused him of conspiracy to subvert the constitution, likening the January 6 Committee’s work to the “Russia, Russia, Russia” hoax that bedevilled his presidency.

Dozens of protesters disrupted the start of the conference, chanting “no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA” unfurling a giant banner that read “Indict Trump” over the proceedings until security could remove them.

“I’m doing it for America, because if I don’t our nation is doomed,” he explained, adding he would be part of “an incredible comeback” and predicting a “momentous landslide” to Republicans in the November midterm elections.

Republicans worry a declaration by Mr Trump of his intention to run in 2024 could come before the November midterm elections, potentially complicating their campaign strategy that centres around inflation, immigration and school choice.

Speaking a day earlier President Biden said Mr Trump “lacked the courage to act” on January 6th, specifically naming the former president, something he has rarely done since moving into the White House.

“The police were heroes that day,” Mr Biden said.

The former president, who maintains significant sway among the Republican base, slammed the 2020 election result as a “catastrophe” and “a disgrace to our country”, a claim that sparked the January 6th 2021 riot that saw the Capitol Building invaded.

“I ran the first time and I won. Then I ran a second time and I did much better. We got millions and millions more votes … We may just have to do it again,” Mr Trump teased, using a trademark phrase that stopped short of triggering restrictive US campaign finance laws that pertain to declared candidates.

Dwelling on America’s crime wave since the pandemic for the bulk of his remarks, Mr Trump praised China’s approach to dealing with drug dealers and advocated for a return of the death penalty for convicted dealers.

“You execute a drug dealer, and you’ll save 500 lives; they kill on average 500 people,” he said, suggesting the next Republican congress should pass laws to let the federal government play a bigger role in law and order across the fifty states.

Gun deaths across the US exceeded 45,000 in 2020 and 2021, the highest rate of deaths since 1995 according to federal data

“We have blood, death and suffering on a scale once unthinkable because of the Democrat Party’s effort to destroy and dismantle law enforcement … It has to stop and it has to stop now …. We shouldn’t be waiting for governors anymore,” Mr Trump said.

His speech ticked off the hot button issues that increasingly motivate the Republican base in the lead up to November’s ballot, castigating “the sickos pushing puberty blockers to young children,” “Marxist teachers unions”, and “rogue bureaucrats”.

Making little mention of President Joe Biden, who is convalescing after contracting Covid-19, Mr Trump excoriated the lax border and immigration policies of the current administration.

Mr Trump’s speech laid bare the growing divisions in the Republican party after Mr Pence earlier urged Republicans not to “give way to temptation to look back” and move on from the 2020 election debate.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the record of the Trump-Pence administration,” Mr Pence said, suggesting his only difference with his former boss was “focus”.

“I don’t know that our movement is that divided. I don’t know that the president and I differ on issues,” Mr Pence said, after a speech that was more uplifting and forward-looking, urging Republicans to support lower taxes, fiscal discipline, and a balanced federal budget.

In his remarks Mr Trump said he was the most persecuted man in American history: “Nixon didn’t even go through one impeachment”.

“I’m doing it for America, because if I don’t our nation is doomed,” he said, referring to his campaigning, which includes regular rallies around the nation, most recently last Friday in Arizona.