The former president and candidate for re-election in the 2024 presidential elections, Donald Trump, became the owner of the annual Republican conference that he himself closed on Saturday night at the National Harbor in Maryland, near Washington DC. He did it after four days of rallies mostly conceived to the greater glory of him and his movement, Maga (Make America Great Again).
In his nearly two-hour rally, Trump insulted Democrats and Republicans of the moderate wing, boasted once again that he had been the best president in the history of the United States, and made the most varied and grandiose promises. Such as carrying out "the largest deportation operation" of immigrants "ever carried out in America," along with building "another two hundred miles (322 kilometers) of wall" on the border with Mexico.
Alluding to the countries of origin of the migrants, Trump stated: "They are emptying their prisons and their asylums." And then he compared those centers to those in The Silence of the Lambs (the novel and then film starring Anthony Hopkins as the murderous psychopath Hannibal Lecter).
Before his speech before hundreds of followers, the ex-president assured the press that he would continue with his presidential campaign even if he was accused of some of the causes for which the Prosecutor's Office is investigating him: basically, the assault on the Capitol on the 6th of January 2021, the concealment of secret papers, and attempts to rig the 2020 election in Georgia.
In his address on the CPAC stage, Trump also promised to end the war in Ukraine "in a single day" and "easily." And he added: “You are going to experience the third world war if something does not happen quickly. I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will avoid the third world war”.
The Republican leader called President Joe Biden a "criminal" after having used the same term for his son, Hunter Biden, in reference to the investigations that are ongoing against the latter for alleged fraud and in relation to the purchase of a weapon .
What had been the most important meeting of the American right of the year led to the most relevant concentration of far-right politicians in America, with his fellow Brazilian and temporary adoptive son Jair Bolsonaro as the main guest star.
Not a few party leaders, including its leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell respectively, as well as the probable alternative candidates for 2024, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, and former vice president Mike Pence, declined. the invitation.
The call is called CPAC (Conservative Action Political Conference); It was founded by Ronald Reagan in 1974 and until recently it was considered the great summit of the also known as the Great Old Party, although in recent years it had become more and more Trumpist. This time there was no doubt.
“I am not in the CPAC. I'm in the TPAC (the Trump Conference)," said radio host and former campaign manager for the leader in Virginia, John Fredericks. “CPAC has been hijacked by Trump forces. We own this convention,” he added triumphantly.
But there wasn't much to celebrate. Compared to the 10,000 attendees who used to attend the convention a decade ago, this year it was less than 3,000.
The call also accused the scandal of the recent complaint filed against CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp for sexual assault on an employee of former Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
With numerous empty seats in almost all sessions, the convention included the participation of former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, second official candidate for the 2024 presidential elections after Trump, as well as ultra parliamentarians Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz; the children of the former president, Donald Trump Jr and Lara Trump; the strategist Steve Bannon, and the former Secretary of State and also a possible presidential candidate Mike Pompeo.
Organizers barred neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, the former president's controversial guest at a dinner at his Florida home in November that was also attended by the equally extreme rapper Ye.
The one who is emerging as a great rival of the Republican leader in 2024, Ron DeSantis, meanwhile chose to participate in a meeting of the influential Club for Growth, in Florida: a meeting that Trump despised by renaming it the "no growth" club and which curiously it was held near his home in Mar-a-Lago.
Arriving precisely from Florida, where he has taken refuge since the end of December after losing the elections to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro did accept the invitation to the CPAC to entertain his friend Trump: the absolute king of the party, even if it was a somewhat sad party.
Bolsonaro assured that he will return "shortly" to his country "to try to return to normality, do politics and be closer to my family." Because his "mission," he pointed out, "is not over." Just like Trump's. Which is not strange, because the two are such for which.
