Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on Joe Biden’s administration as he began his first speech in three months which saw him take aim at illegal immigration, cancel culture and calls to defund the police.
Speaking at the Greenville Convention Center in North Carolina Saturday night, the former president said: ‘As we gather tonight our country is being destroyed before our very own eyes. Crime is exploding, police departments are being ripped apart and defunded, can you believe that. is that good politics, defund our police?
‘You look at our border, it’s wide open. Illegal immigration is skyrocketing at a level we’ve never seen before, and this is over a period of a few months.
‘Drugs are pouring in, gas prices are soaring, our industries are being pillaged by foreign cyber attacks.
‘That’s a lack of respect for our country and for our leaders.
‘And speaking of our leaders, they’re bowing down to China, America’s being demeaned and humiliated on the world stage.
‘Our freedom is being overtaken by left-wing cancel culture and the Biden administration is pushing toxic critical race theory and illegal discrimination into our children’s schools.’
‘Now you tell me. We take this? Joe Biden and the socialist democrats are the most radical left-wing administration in history. Even Bernie Sanders can’t believe it.’
‘The survival of America depends on our ability to elect Republicans at every level, starting with the midterms next year. We have to get it done. We have to defend our borders, we have to do all of these things.
Donald Trump is making his second speech since leaving the White House in Greenville, North Carolina
Moments after taking the stage, the former president ripped into Joe Biden over illegal immigration, calls to defund the police, and cancel culture
‘The cancel culture, the defunding culture, the defending culture – and they defend the wrong things – we’re not going to let it go on any longer. We’re going to stand up for our values, and take back our country at a level that is very, very good.’
The 45th President of the United States was greeted with rapturous applause as he took to the stage in Greenville, North Carolina, Saturday night.
He also mentioned the theory that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – a claim widely dismissed last year when it was raised by Trump.
The former president said: ‘We had this horrible thing come in from China. We got that thing right too, did you notice. It’s called the lab (theory).
That was an easy one. Wuhan. You had this horrible problem come in and like every other country we went down.’
President Biden last week called for the lab leak theory to be investigated, as scientists admit the initial claim that the virus came from a ‘wet market’ in Wuhan may not have been correct.
In a video shared shortly before the former president’s appearance at the North Carolina Republican Convention in Greenville Saturday night, Trump said: ‘I wanna thank everybody for the tremendous support you’ve shown. We’re going to take back the Senate, take back the House, we’re gonna take back the White House and sooner than you think its going to be really something special.
Within moments of taking to the stage, Trump took aim at President Joe Biden over illegal immigration and cancel culture
‘But the love and the affection and the respect that you’ve given all of us. It’s really important. The Republican Party is stronger than it’s ever been and it’s going to be a lot stronger than it is right now. We’re going to turn it around, we’re going to turn it around so much.’
The ex-president’s speech is his first since February – when he addressed CPAC in Orlando – and only the second since he left the White House on January 20.
He introduced his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who confirmed she has no plans to run for a Senate seat in North Carolina in 2022 because of her two toddlers.
Lara said: ‘So I have been considering it and its a big decision in case nobody knew.
‘And its something I did a lot of soul-searching and thinking, talking with my father in law, my parents, my husband Eric.
Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara also appeared on stage to confirm she would not be running for a US Senate seat in North Carolina in the mid-term elections
‘And because of the values my parents instilled in me they taught me that when you do something you give 100 per cent
‘Because of my two kids who are very young, one and three, Carolina and Luke its going to be very hard for me to enter this senate race right now but I am saying no for now, not no for ever, just so you know…
‘At the right time, I would absolutely love to come back and run for something here in my home state.’
His targets are set to include President Joe Biden, and Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Public Health.
Trump and Fauci endured a tense relationship over COVID-19 while he was president, with the GOP leader now turning his fire on Fauci for flip-flopping on whether the virus may have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.
Trump appeared in a short video vowing to retake the Senate, House and White House ‘sooner than you think’ ahead of a Saturday speech in Greenville, North Carolina
Trump is seen here leaving Trump Tower, where he has been spotted about once a week as he embarks on the next phase of his political career. Last month he moved his base of operations from his winter home at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, to his golf club at Bedminister, New Jersey
His address to the North Carolina Republican state convention represents the next step in his return to the political spotlight.
Two outdoor rallies are planned for later this month as Trump continues to mull a run for the White House in 2024.
His speech on Saturday evening – his first since February – will include an attack on Democrats’ attempts to overhaul voting laws
‘The survival of America depends upon our ability to elect Republicans at every level – starting with the midterms next year,’ he will say, according to advance excerpts obtained by DailyMail.com.
‘Together, we are going to defend our freedoms, we are going to stand up for our values, and we are going to take back our country!’
Fans of the former president held up billboards to show their support outside the Greenville Convention Center ahead of Trump’s speech there on Saturday evening
Former President Donald Trump will address the North Carolina Republican state convention in Greenville on Saturday night, launching the next phase of his political career
The line echoes elements of his 2020 campaign, when he warned Democrats were intent on destroying American values of freedom and independence.
In his speech, Trump will also claim vindication for pointing the finger at China for its role in the emergence of COVID-19, when the political, scientific and media establishments played down the idea of laboratory leak.
‘The media, the Democrats, and the so-called experts are now finally admitting what I first said 13 months ago: the evidence demonstrates that the virus originated in a Chinese government lab,’ he will say.
In recent weeks, a string of leading scientists has admitted they were too hasty in assuming the virus had emerged from the wild.
And President Joe Biden has directed the intelligence community look afresh at the question of its origins.
Trump’s speech will take aim at President Joe Biden and tell supporters: ‘The survival of America depends upon our ability to elect Republicans at every level – starting with the midterms next year’
Meanwhile, Trump has been rebuilding his political life, first from his base in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and for the past month from his golf club in New Jersey.
He has been spotted slipping in and out of Trump Tower in New York, while popping up on his favorite conservative television news shows.
He has repeatedly floated the idea of running for president in 2024 although aides say no decision is likely until after the midterms next year, when he can assess the political currents.
On Saturday, he will appear in Greenville, N.C., where he is expected to repeat his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, attack Dr. Anthony Fauci, his coronavirus adviser who is under intense pressure over the origins of the pandemic, and demand China pay reparations for unleashing COVID-19.
He will also contrast how he imposed sanctions on construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline amid fears it would increase Russia’s energy hold over Europe, with the Biden administration’s decision to end plans for a pipeline to carry crude oil from Canada to the U.S.
Trump will also use the speech to say history has proven him right to point the finger of blame at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which he claimed last year was the origin of the coronavirus pandemic
‘I killed the Russian pipeline, but Joe Biden killed the Keystone pipeline,’ he will say.
The appearance is the first of several planned.
Next weekend he will appear via jumbotron at an event organized by MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, who has emerged as one of the most vociferous advocates for overturning last years election.
Trump has also announced plans for outdoor rallies in the battleground states of Ohio and Florida.
And aides say they are planning an event around the July 4 holiday weekend – when they have also teased more information on the former president’s plans to return to social media.
Some of Trump’s closest allies have also urged the president not to bring up a bizarre ‘reinstatement’ theory that emerged earlier this week.
The ex-president is said to have claimed he will be ‘reinstated’ in the White House by August this year earlier this week, despite his humiliating election loss last November.
Trump’s theory was first revealed by New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman.
But several of his most powerful supporters have since urged him not to bring it up on Saturday, or risk exposing himself to ridicule.
They told the Daily Beast that while they are keen to see Trump return to power, Joe Biden’s election win was a fair one, and that the ex-president should return to Washington DC via the ballot box.