1 of 5 | Former President Donald Trump promised to undertake the “largest deportation” in the nation’s history if elected over President Joe Biden during the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo
Former President Donald Trump promised the “largest deportation” in the nation’s history in an appearance at a conservative conference on Saturday before heading to South Carolina to view primary election results.
Trump spoke for about 90 minutes during his keynote address on the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., as voters in South Carolina cast their ballots in the state’s GOP primary election, where he is heavily favored to win. Advertisement
During his CPAC address, Trump touched on problems at the southern U.S. border, declared President Joe Biden unfit for office and declared the recent New York fraud judgment against him a part of systemic weaponization of the legal system against him by “sick people.”
On the topic of immigration, Trump depicted the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers at the U.S. border with Mexico as an existential threat to the United States and promised that if reelected he would initiate the “largest deportation in the history of our country.” Advertisement
“We have no choice,” Trump said. “And it’s not a nice thing and I hate to say it, and those clowns in the media will say ‘oh he’s so mean.’ No, no. they’re killing our people, they’re killing our country.”
The rhetoric repeated previous comments Trump has made on immigration in which he claimed migrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country. Critics said those words echoed the language used by German Nazis during World War II to justify the Holocaust.
At the same time, Trump also sought to broaden his appeal beyond his right-wing Republican base by seeking to allay fears he would wield the Justice Department to extract revenge on his political opponents during a second term.
“Your victory will be our ultimate vindication, your liberty will be our ultimate reward, and the unprecedented success of the United States of America will be my ultimate and absolute revenge,” Trump said. “That’s what I want. Success will be our revenge.”
Upon concluding his address, Trump exited to fly to South Carolina where the state’s GOP primary is in progress.
Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake spoke at CPAC earlier in the day and likened Trump to a “bull in the China shop” whose “mean tweets brought us world peace,” The Hill reported. Advertisement
“We’re tired of the beta men,” she said. “We want some alpha men.”
While the CPAC conference concludes, South Carolina’s GOP primary is underway.
Emerson College polling shows Trump leading former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley by 23 points, 58% to 35%, with 7% undecided.
The South Carolina primary is open to all voters, including independent voters, who support Haley by 54% to 46% over Trump, according to Emerson. Among GOP voters, Trump leads Haley, 71% to 29%.
The pollsters said Haley has strong support from suburban voters and those with college degrees, while Trump has strong support among voters under age 40.
Haley is the only opponent left vying with Trump for the GOP presidential nomination and has said she’ll continue campaigning for the nomination regardless of the South Carolina primary’s outcome.
The polling data suggests Trump will win the primary by a large margin, according to ABC News, but not by enough to top George H.W. Bush’s 41.2% victory margin in 1992.
