Former US President Donald Trump handily won the Conservative Political Action Conference's (CPAC) carefully monitored straw poll on Saturday. It is considered a symbolic success among the Republican base, as he aims to return to the White House in 2024.
Donald Trump received 62% of the vote to the 20% of his closest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). Perry Johnson, a businessman who declared his campaign for president this week, took home 5 percent, according to The Hill.
Arizona Republican governor contender Kari Lake polled highest among potential vice presidential candidates, with 20% of the vote. In CPAC's 2024 vice presidential poll, DeSantis garnered 14% support. The survey had almost 2,000 responses from participants, according to the event's organizers.
Donald Trump won last year's CPAC straw polls in Orlando, Florida, and Dallas, Texas. The former president, who announced his 2024 run last November and remains the GOP's most popular and powerful leader two years after leaving the White House, won 69% of Dallas' anonymous online straw poll last August and 59% in Orlando past February, per a Fox News report.
Trump Blasts Rivals
In his keynote presentation at CPAC Saturday night, Donald Trump criticized President Joe Biden, the Department of Justice, and his many court battles.
Trump, who is now formally running for president and is anticipated to face a wide field of rivals, also made subtle jabs at his possible rivals. He noted that any Republican candidate other than him symbolizes a system that should be left for good.
He said, as an added advantage, "Now I am experienced, and I know the people of Washington."
Donald Trump also noted that they will "appropriately deal" with RINOs or "Republicans In Name Only," saying that the group of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush "is history."
Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, has declared he would back "anybody but Trump" in the 2024 election, and Rove just attended a donor conference in Austin, Texas, where numerous possible 2024 election contenders were present..
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Without identifying them, Donald Trump said that certain Republicans, like his former vice president Mike Pence, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former U.S. envoy to the UN Nikki Haley, have backed changes to social security and Medicare.
Trump remarked that there will be no turning back to those who want to undermine the US "great social security system."
The Republican Presidential Candidate Once Again Makes False Claim
On foreign policy, another subject that has split Donald Trump from other prospective opponents, he regularly spoke about limiting US engagement in conflicts. The Republican leader said that he "will prevent, very easily, World War III," per CBS News.
Donald Trump also called both Black women, James and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, "racist." He also joked that he didn't learn the meaning of the phrase "subpoena" until he became president and said that as his popularity grew, so did the craziness of the prosecutors seeking his conviction.
"They're not coming after me, they're coming after you, and that's why I'm standing here today," Trump said, adding that he wants to complete "the mission" he began.
Donald Trump once again falsely claimed that he "won the second election," reiterating his conspiracy theories about the stolen 2020 election. Republicans have openly blamed the language for the party's poor showing in the 2022 midterms.
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