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Former President Donald Trump Saturday hinted at a 2024 presidential run in a speech full of culture war rhetoric and attacks on his political enemies, including President Biden, the January 6 Committee and more.
The address was the keynote on the second day of the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. Trump’s speech followed one Friday night by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s considered along with Trump one of the foremost potential GOP 2024 contenders.
Teasing his own possible 2024 run, Trump said Saturday that he won the 2016 election, falsely claimed he won the 2020 election, and said, “now we may just have to do it again.”
“If I stayed home, if I announced that I was not going to run for office, the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop,” Trump also said later in the speech. “But that’s what they want me to do. And you know what? There’s no chance I do that.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks to the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Fla., on July 23, 2022. (Sarah Freeman/Tyler Olson)
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The comments came after Donald Trump Jr. earlier in the evening did not take the possibility Trump could announce a presidential bid before November off the table when asked by Fox News Digital.
Among the culture war issues Trump hit on were school controversies, including critical race theory.
“Across the United States, we need to implement strict prohibitions on teaching inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material to America’s children in any form,” he said.
Activists at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit loudly cheered former President Donald Trump during a speech Saturday (Sarah Freeman/Fox News)
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“You would not trust these people to babysit your children for 20 minutes. And why should we then let them educate millions of American students six hours a day, year, after year, after year,” he added.
Trump also attacked transgender participation in women’s sports, making animated gestures and mocking voices as he recounted stories of biological males winning women’s sporting events.
“It’s not politically correct to do what I just did… people are not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said.
In a speech Saturday night, former President Donald Trump alluded to University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who became a lightning rod for controversy after switching from the men’s to the women’s division in the NCAA, and seeing major success swimming against women. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Trump further attacked the Biden administration for its coronavirus vaccine mandates for the military. He said the U.S. should “rehire every patriot who was shamefully fired from the military with an apology” and “back pay.” And he said that the right needs to engage in corporate culture wars the same way Democrats do.
“The radical left attacks those corporations by putting boycotts on them, and for some reason, Republicans and the right they don’t do that,” he said. “The only way to stop this extremism and get radical politics out of corporate boardrooms and human resource departments is if we do to the left exactly what the left does to us.”
Trump also took potshots at some of his political enemies. He called Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., “horrible,” and decried moderate Republicans like Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
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He called the Jan. 6 Committee an “unselect committee of political thugs,” attacked Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., over the allegations Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election and more.
Trump closed his speech with more apparent hinting at another presidential run, saying that with Biden’s presidency, his reelection slogan of “keep America great,” is now outdated. But, Trump said, “we will make America great again.”