President Trump marked his month in office with a rousing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, that was part standup routine, part policy speech and all victory lap.
Greeted with a thunderous standing ovation, Mr. Trump took the stage and was frequently interrupted with applause and cheers from the friendly crowd.
“On November 5 we stood up to all the corrupt forces that were destroying America. We took away their power. We took away their confidence. They lost their confidence, you know?” Mr. Trump. “They lost their confidence. It’s so nice to watch. And we took back our country.”
He claimed his administration “liberated” the country from a Democrat-led government that pushed issues such as transgender rights while ignoring the economy and immigration. Mr. Trump said his election victory was “the great liberation of America.”
Mr. Trump’s remarks closed out the fourth and final day of the conservative political conference. He first spoke at CPAC nearly 14 years ago when he began gaining support in Republican circles for his sharp criticism of President Obama. That year he won the CPAC straw poll of potential presidential candidates and told the adoring crowd that sparked his 2016 run for the presidency.
Before Mr. Trump took the stage, Jim McLaughlin, a Trump campaign pollster revealed that Mr. Trump had a 99% approval rating among the event’s attendees.
During his 90-minute speech, Mr. Trump railed against the Biden administration; the news media, Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelenskyy and the government agencies he’s trying to shutter. The speech at times was a greatest hits list of his favorite targets.
“Every single thing he touched turned to [expletive,]” Mr. Trump said of President Biden.
The crowd road with approval as Mr. Trump recalled a conversation he had with conservative leader Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, who the president said warned him not to use foul language in his speeches.
“You know, sometimes you need it for emphasis,” Mr. Trump said.
He then polled the crowd asking them to applaud depending on whether they preferred he refer to Mr. Biden as “Sleepy Joe” or “Crooked Joe.”
The president then turned his fire on former Vice President Kamala Harris, his election opponent. Mr. Trump joked that “nobody ever knows her last name” as he mispronounced her first name.
He called liberal cable outlet MSNBC “a threat to democracy,” accusing the network’s star host Rachel Maddow of “lying every night.”
“They are really a vehicle of the Democratic Party,” he said.
While touting his accomplishments, Mr. Trump praised the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. He torched USAID, a U.S. foreign aid organization, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The president said the organizations were “ultra-left.”
“We’ve also effectively ended the left-wing scam known as USAID,” Mr. Trump told the crowd.
“So many people have been hurt,” Mr. Trump said of the CFPB. “We’ve escorted the radical left bureaucrats out of the building and locked the doors behind them. We’ve gotten rid of thousands.”
Mr. Trump then shifted to his efforts to reduce the number of federal workers, saying his administration has eliminated “all of the unnecessary, incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce.”
Thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to drastically downsize the government. The sweeping cuts are being felt in nearly every department from the Pentagon to national parks.
The President told the CPAC crowd that civil servants who don’t report for in-person work have been fired. Mr. Trump then joked that if he worked from home, he’d be focused on improving his golf game.
“If I’m staying home, my golf handicap would get down to a very low number,” he said. “I’d be so good I’d try to get on tour.”
Turning to the three-year-Russian war on Ukraine, Mr. Trump said he is trying to negotiate an end to the conflict so the U.S. can “get the money back.” Under Mr. Biden, the U.S. sent billions in aid to Ukraine with no strings attached, compared to the European nations which provided Ukraine with funding through low-interest loans.
Mr. Trump said European nations contributed less to Ukraine than the U.S.’ because of “a stupid, incompetent president and administration,” referring to Mr. Biden.
He said that Ukraine should give the U.S. “something for all of the money we put up.”
That something is likely access to roughly 50% of Ukraine’s mineral wealth under a proposal that has been rejected by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Mr. Trump revived his attacks on Mr. Zelenskyy in recent days as he continues to escalate a simmering feud. Earlier this week, he called Mr. Zelenskyy a “dictator.”
“We’re going to get our money back because it’s not fair. It’s just not fair and we will see,” Mr. Trump said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.