From our correspondent in Washington
Trump is back.
The former president gave a speech at the Republican convention in North Carolina on Saturday night that sounded quite like an election campaign speech.
In his second public address since leaving office, the former president described the current situation in the United States as dire, touted his own accomplishments while in the White House, and, of course, reiterated that the he 2020 election had been a vast fraud.
“Our country is being destroyed before our eyes,”
Trump said.
“Radical Democrats want to destroy freedom of speech, religion, and take up your arms.
I warned you ”.
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In his apocalyptic portrayal, the borders are wide open to criminals, the United States is humiliated on the international stage, fuel prices are on the rise, free speech is threatened, and radical Democrats are pushing their racial theories.
“Biden is the most left-wing administration in history, even Bernie Sanders says so
,” he said.
It's a shame."
And to add again:
"Biden puts America last, China and Russia rejoice".
Focused on the midterm elections
The former President of the United States only mentioned in passing the next presidential term of 2024, casting doubt on his intentions, but he clearly insisted on the importance of the midterm elections which must be held. hold next year.
"America's survival depends on our ability to elect Republicans at all levels,"
he warned.
His daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, wife of his son Eric, has announced that she will not run
"not this time"
in the election to succeed Senator Burr who is retiring.
Trump surprised when he immediately announced his support for Representative Ted Budd in an election that could determine control of the Senate next year.
Read also: Origin of the Covid: the track of the Chinese laboratory is becoming clearer
Even though Republicans suffered a crushing electoral defeat under his leadership, Trump's influence over the party remains largely unchanged.
According to a recent CBS poll, 66% of Republicans consider loyalty to Donald Trump important.
His immense popularity in the Republican electorate paralyzes elected officials who hope to distance themselves from the former president, and galvanizes those who hope he will allow them to regain a majority in the Senate and the House.
Trump also, this time with well-founded arguments, recalled that the vaccination campaign that allows America to emerge from the doldrums of the pandemic, had been made possible thanks to the efforts of his administration.
But he also seized the renewed interest in the investigation into the origins of COVID-19 to recall that he was the first to evoke the track of a Chinese laboratory.
He also mocked Dr.Anthony Fauci, the White House's senior medical adviser, for dismissing this theory in the past.
Read also: Origin of Covid-19: Dr Fauci put on the spot
“He's not a great doctor, but he's a hell of a huckster,”
Trump said.
"He loves television more than any politician, but he was wrong on almost every issue and he was wrong about Wuhan and the lab too."
"All nations should agree to present China with a bill of at least 10 trillion dollars to compensate for the damage it has caused"
, also launched Trump.
"All debts owed to China should be canceled as compensation."
The 2020 election, "crime of the century"
In a now classic way, the former president also evoked the 2020 election, repeating as he has done since last November that the election was stolen from him by the massive fraud of the Democrats,
"the crime of the century" .
"The evidence is too large to mention,
" Trump said, repeating that ballots had been cast on behalf of deceased people, as well as illegal aliens, that Facebook had encouraged voting campaigns in left-wing constituencies and that “Indians”
had been paid to vote.
“It was a third world election like we've never seen before,”
Trump said, as he has been doing since last November.
He praised the ongoing audits in Arizona and other states, where some county ballot recounts are conducted by private organizations, and the laws made by more than 20 Republican states to establish rules of. stricter voting.
"Otherwise, we will never have free elections in this country again!"
Impasse on the assault on the Capitol
Not once did he mention the episode of January 6, when his media campaign to discredit the presidential election led his supporters to force their way into the Capitol to interrupt Joe Biden's certification of the election.
Bleached by the Senate vote after his second impeachment procedure, Trump was able to proclaim with applause that he is not
"the one trying to undermine American democracy": "I am the one trying to save it!"
Read also: How Donald Trump witnessed the assault on the Capitol imperturbably
He also referred to the investigations directed against him, qualifying them as a plot.
"Democrats turn justice into an instrument of political revenge."
Trump, who was the subject of a two-year ban on the use of his Facebook account the day before, suspended after the attack on the Capitol, also attacked Mark Zuckerberg, the leader of the powerful social network.
“When he came to the White House, he would try to get invited to dinner with his wife. I guess it's human nature, but we can't let our country be ruled by this kind of human being. ”
The former president has planned to hold rallies in Texas, Florida, Ohio and Georgia by the summer. The days when a more conservative part of the party, embodied by Liz Cheney, tried to oppose the hold of the former president, are now over. Cheney was ousted from her position as the number three Republican Group in the House. The Senate refused to vote for the creation of a commission of inquiry into the events of January 6. The former president has hardly any more obstacles in front of him to regain full control of the Republican Party.
