Donald Trump Returns to Washington for the First Time Since Defeat as SCOTUS Prepares Expected 2024 Election Campaign

Former President Donald Trump will return to Washington for the first time since leaving office on Tuesday, delivering a policy address to an ally think group that has been developing an agenda for a possible second term.

Donald Trump will speak at the America First Policy Institute's two-day America First Agenda Summit, as some aides encourage him to spend more time talking about his vision for the future and less time relitigating the 2020 race as he prepares to declare a possible presidential candidacy in 2024.

Trump Returns to Washington

Trump's visit to Washington, his first since President Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, comes as his possible 2024 opponents have been taking increasingly overt moves to undermine his role as the party's standard-bearer. Former Vice President Mike Pence, for example, has been promoting his own "Freedom Agenda" in speeches that serve as an implicit contrast to Trump.

Trump has spent most of his time since leaving office obsessing on the 2020 election and disseminating falsehoods about his defeat to cast doubt on Biden's triumph. Indeed, even as the Jan. 6 committee was laying bare his desperate and potentially illegal attempts to stay in power, as well as his refusal to call off a violent mob of his supporters who attempted to obstruct the peaceful transition of power, Trump continued to press officials to overturn Biden's victory, even though there was no legal way to do so, according to AP News.

Beyond the summit, the America First Policy Institute's team has been setting their foundation for the future, "making sure we do have the policies, personnel, and procedure nailed down for every critical agency when we do take the White House back," said Brooke Rollins, president of the AFPI.

She said that the foundation sprang from efforts to prevent the chaotic early days of Trump's first term when he came unprepared at the White House with no clear preparations in place.

Trump Adviser Established Second-Term Agenda

Rollins, then the chairman of Trump's Domestic Policy Council, began planning a second-term agenda with other administration officials, including senior economic policy advisor Larry Kudlow and national security adviser Robert O'Brien, while Trump ran for reelection.

The organization, which was once dismissed as a haven for ex-Trump administration officials who were turned down for more lucrative jobs, has grown into a behemoth, with an operating budget of around $25 million and 150 employees, including 17 former senior White House officials and nine former Cabinet members.

The organization now has more than 20 policy centers and has attempted to expand its reach beyond Washington by influencing local legislators and school boards. According to Axios, an American leadership initiative led by former Office of Personnel Management head Michael Rigas was launched several weeks ago to identify future staff loyal to Trump and his America First approach who could be hired as part of a larger effort to replace large swaths of the civil service.

The group is one of the numerous Trump-allied organizations that have continued to advance his policies in his absence, including America First Legal, which is committed to opposing Biden's agenda in court, the Center for Renewing America, and the Conservative Partnership Institute.

The event will promote AFPI's "America First Agenda," which focuses on ten major policy areas like the economy, health care, and election security. It covers several of Trump's defining concerns, such as continuing to build a border wall and a plan to dismantle the administrative state, Independent reported.