Former President Donald Trump celebrates another Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) win after he topped the 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll on Sunday, eight months after his defeat in the 2020 election.
The CPAC held in Dallas, Texas, was made up of mostly right-wing Trump supporters with two presidential polls: one without the former president and not with him. The results, which were released in the afternoon, indicated that Donald Trump dominated the poll with 70% of ballots cast with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in second place with 21%. The anonymous straw poll shows none of the other possible candidates to make 1 percent of the ballot cast.
Trump has hinted at candidacy for president in 2024, but he has said that no formal campaign would be started anytime soon. Since leaving the White House, the former president has hinted at a future presidential candidacy in many campaign-style rallies and public appearances.
In May, he told conservative commentator Candace Owens that he is very excited and is looking forward to announce his plans at the appropriate time. Trump is unlikely to make a formal announcement or declare a candidacy this year since doing so would trigger election regulations restricting his ability to spend and raise funds, as per Newsweek.
If he officially begins a campaign, the ex-president would be forced to file yearly reports until 2024, a procedure he claims he would avoid. However, Trump has continued to tease the idea in public statements, even joked about possible endorsements on Sunday. In recent months, the GOP has been embroiled in an intra-party battle between Trump's supporters and establishment figures wanting to restrict his dominance.
Trump, DeSantis lead the CPAC straw poll
Per Fox News, the victory in the straw poll was an increase over Trump's 55% support in a hypothetical 2024 Republican primary match straw poll held at CPAC Orlando in late February. DeSantis, a first-term governor and Trump loyalist who gained national acclaim for his opposition to lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions during the pandemic, comfortably won a second 2024 ballot question - this time without Trump on the ballot.
On that issue, DeSantis received 68% of the vote, while former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo received only 5%. Donald Trump Jr. and Texas Senator Ted Cruz were both at 4%, with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem at 3%. No one else came close to achieving the 2% mark.
The straw poll results, as well as former President Donald Trump's speech on Sunday, were the most anticipated parts of the three-day event of conservative activists and leaders from across the US. Trump's outstanding performance is unsurprising. Since Trump's 2016 presidential election win, CPAC, the largest and most prominent conservative gathering, has become a Trump-fest.
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The former president's speech in CPAC gathering
Donald Trump spoke for an hour and a half at a CPAC event, insisting to the Republican crowd that "we are the majority in the United States." Biden's border crisis, Democrats' proposed tax hikes, Big Tech corruption, mounting crime, and the swift departure of troops from Afghanistan were all targets for Trump.
After the police death of George Floyd in May 2020, the anti-police campaign gained traction among progressive Democrats. After major crime rises spread across the country and grew widely unpopular, Biden's administration and Democratic politicians are now blaming the movement on Republicans.
Trump also mentioned his lawsuit against Big Tech firms which drew applause. On Wednesday, Trump filed his lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, and Google's YouTube, as well as their CEOs Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, during a news conference in New Jersey.
The lawsuit alleges that conservatives have been unfairly silenced and asks that Trump's accounts be restored. He also raged against Section 230 protections, which provide social media companies immunity from liability for what their users say.
He said that Republicans on social media are treated unjustly in comparison to Democratic voices. Trump made sporadic references to the 2020 election, which he claimed was "unfair" and "made it too easy for Democrats to cheat," throughout his remarks. The former president defended his election fraud allegations while also backing his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, Daily Mail reported.
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