Donald Trump has said that he might run for president again, delighting his supporters at a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference — his first public appearance since leaving the White House last month.
The former president sent audience members at the CPAC event in Florida into raptures with a typically combative speech, much of which repeated material he used on the campaign stump last year. He promised not to divide the Republican party by setting up his own political movement, and suggested he could seek the party’s nomination for president again in 2024.
Trump said: “Biden has failed in his number one duty as chief executive enforcing America’s laws. This alone should be reason enough for Democrats to suffer withering losses in the midterms and to lose the White House decisively four years from now.”
In a reference to his false claims that last November’s election was rigged, he added: “Actually, as you know they just lost one of those things.” And in a comment that brought a standing ovation from the crowd, he said: “But who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time.” Trump has been absent from the public eye since January 20, when he left the White House hours before the inauguration of his successor Joe Biden.
He has also lost his favoured form of communication after being banned from Twitter. However, his support among Republican activists has shown few signs of wavering. A straw poll at the conference, conducted before Trump’s speech, found he was the most popular potential Republican candidate for 2024, enjoying 55 per cent support among those present.
That was far ahead of his nearest rival, the Republican governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, who polled 21 per cent. However, while 95 per cent of those at the event said they wanted Trump’s policies to continue, far fewer — 68 per cent — said they wanted the former president to run again himself. As the GOP squabbles over the way forward following its loss of both Congress and the White House, the CPAC event was an illustration of Trump’s enduring grass roots dominance.
Conference goers repeatedly broke out into chants of “You won. You won” during the former president’s speech, much of which was devoted to false claims that the election was stolen from him. The most important issue facing the country according to those who responded in the straw poll was “election integrity”.
In his speech, Trump ran through a long list of party members in the House and Senate whom he accused of being insufficiently loyal to his Make America Great Again movement.
He said he planned to “actively support” particular candidates in a bid to win back Congress in the 2022 midterm elections. After confidently predicting a sweep of Congress next year, Trump said the winner of the next presidential election would be a Republican. “Who will it be?” He asked to cheers. “I wonder.”
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Is Anthony Odiong still a priest after life in prison sentence over rape?")