Trump Among Friends at Conservative Haven CPAC

President Trump spoke today to an enthusiastic packed house at the Conservative Political Action Convention(CPAC) at the Gaylord convention center near DC. He was the first President to speak at CPAC in his first year since Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s.

Multiple standing ovations and chants of “USA, USA…” marked the speech as one of Trump’s most relaxed ever. He promised to return to CPAC every year, something no other President has done.

Trump expressed deep appreciation for the audience, which had indeed contributed substantially to his election victory.

The speech had little in the way of new content, he has certainly up’d the intensity.

He spoke first about “fake news” noting that the media has spun this as a war against all media. He emphasized “fake” and accused certain media outlets of faking or exageration their sources. He called for them to identify their sources and say whatever they had to say “to my face.” He teased the audience into yelling out CNN (“I don’t want to mention names, but…”), and then proceeded to criticize CNN and the “Clinton News Network” which prompted chants of “lock her up…” 

Having talked about this in Orlando a few days ago, his consistent criticism may signal a sustained attack of the liberal mainstream media, rather than just a shot across the bow. We wrote about this before, and it seems to be more likely that a war will badly damage certain media outlets, while bolstering Trump.

Trump also intensified his rhetoric on terrorism, saying the military will now have instructions to “totally obliterate ISIS.”

He noted the problems in Sweden, Germany and France, due to the massive influx of refugees. He pledged that new actions in the next few days would keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the U.S.

Unlike most politicians in history, Trump has not backed off on his campaign promises, and doubled down on the following:

– Trade – Trump has pulled out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and will deal with countries one on one.

– ICE officers “as we speak” are removing the “bad dudes” from our country, referring to illegal aliens who are part of gangs or who have committed violent crimes. “Those guys are tough, but our guys are tougher.”

– Repeal and Replace Obamacare – no baking down.

– Stop illegal immigration at the border (for which he got chants of “Build that wall…”). Trump said construction on the wall would begin much sooner than expected.

– Reduce violence in our inner cities (citing Chicago as a primary example).  By securing the border we will reduce the flow of illegal drugs into our inner cities. We will also support our police.

– Trump has already approved the Keystone and Dakota pipelines.

– Met with CEO’s of major companies to get factories built in the U.S. – and its working.

– Create jobs so people can “get off of welfare and get back to work”

Only one protestor stood up, who screamed “fascist” and was carrying a flag of some kind. She was quickly drowned out by chants of “USA” and security had her out the door within 20 seconds. One enterprising photographer jumped in front of security to get a picture and was almost run over.  The fun of a Trump speech…

Overall a hugely successful day for President Trump.

Author’s note: While we sympathize with Trump’s comment about identifying anonymous sources, it is not a like thing to happen, nor should it be. We just wish the journalists would have more integrity.