OXON HILL, Md. — President Donald Trump mentioned Saturday that “nobody’s ever seen anything” like his administration’s sweeping effort to fireside 1000’s of federal staff and shrink the dimensions of presidency, congratulating himself for “dominating” Washington and sending bureaucrats “packing.”
Addressing an adoring crowd on the Conservative Political Motion Convention simply exterior the nation’s capital, Trump promised, “We’re going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come.”
The president argues that voters gave him a mandate to overtake authorities whereas cracking down on the U.S.-Mexico border and increasing tax cuts that had been the signature coverage of his first administration.
Trump clicked simply again into marketing campaign mode throughout his hour-plus speech, predicting that the GOP will proceed to win and defy historical past, which has proven {that a} president’s occasion usually struggles throughout midterm elections.
“Nobody’s ever seen anything like this,” Trump mentioned, likening his new administration’s opening month to being on a roll by the primary 4 holes of a spherical of golf — which he mentioned offers him confidence for the fifth gap.
Trump additionally mentioned through the speech that he’d perform harsher immigration insurance policies. However these efforts have thus far largely been overshadowed by his administration’s mass federal firings. He introduced that one entity with a workforce that had been considerably lowered, the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth, would have its Washington workplace taken over by Customs and Border Safety officers.
“The agency’s name has been removed from its former building,” he mentioned.
The president additionally repeated his earlier guarantees to scrutinize the nation’s gold depository at Fort Knox.
“Would anybody like to join us?” he requested to cheers from the group on the suggestion that administration forces would possibly converge on the advanced. “We want to see if the gold is still there.”
However Trump additionally devoted giant chunks of his tackle to reliving final yr’s presidential race, jeering at former President Joe Biden and mispronouncing the primary identify of former Vice President Kamala Harris — his Election Day opponent — gleefully proclaiming, “I haven’t said that name in a while.”
He went on to make use of an expletive to explain Biden’s dealing with of border safety, regardless of noting that evangelical conservatives have urged him to not use foul language.
Trump had kinder phrases for Chinese language President Xi Jinping, saying “I happen to like” him, whereas saying, “we’ve been treated very unfairly by China and many other countries.”
On the sidelines of the convention, Trump met with conservative Polish President Andrzej Duda amid rising tensions in Europe over Russia’s battle in Ukraine. After he took the stage, Trump saluted Duda and one other attendee, Argentine President Javier Milei.
Trump known as Duda “a fantastic man and a great friend of mine” and mentioned “you must be doing something right, hanging out with Trump.”