Donald Trump is expected to announce in his speech Sunday that he will not start his own party, but instead call for Republicans to unite as he returns to the political limelight in a keynote address at the Conservative Political Actions Conference.
‘We are not starting new parties, and we will not be dividing our power and our strength. Instead, we will be united and strong like never before,’ Trump will say, according to an excerpt of the speech obtained by Fox News.
Although Trump won’t officially announce anything in regards to his political future, Fox reports he will walk ‘right up to the line of announcing another campaign’ to take back the White House from President Joe Biden in 2024.
The speech is expected to last 90 minutes, minimum.
The news that Trump will commit to the GOP comes after rumors emerged last month that he was considering creating his own political party and breaking with Republicans.
Top Trump aide Corey Lewandowski told Fox News on Sunday that it was always ‘fake news’ that the former president was ever considering creating his own party apart from Republicans.
‘Why would you start a third party when you’re the head of the Republican Party?’ Lewandowski posed. ‘There’s no question about it: Donald Trump is the head of the Republican Party.’
‘This notion that he’s going to start a third party, it’s total fake news, okay?’ he continued. ‘He’s never wanted to do that.’
Donald Trump will announce Sunday during his CPAC speech that he will not form his own political party: ‘We are not starting new parties, and we will not be dividing our power and our strength’
Top Trump aide Corey Lewandowski told Fox News on Sunday that it was always ‘fake news’ that the former president was ever considering creating his own party
Former President Donald Trump (left) is photographed on his West Palm Beach golf course Saturday alongside Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (right) preparing for his Sunday appearance at CPAC in Orlando, Florida
‘He has been the head of the Republican Party. He’s the most important endorsement for any Republican running for office in a primary or a general election, and that’s going to continue to be the case.’
Although several potential 2024 Republican presidential contenders made appearances at CPAC, most of them made it clear they support Trump and would put support behind him.
Those potential contenders who spoke at CPAC include Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Rick Scott of Florida, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
‘Donald J. Trump ain’t going anywhere,’ Cruz said while speaking at the massive gathering.
Lewandowski said Sunday that Trump’s ‘first mission’ is to win back Congress in 2022 – a fact he will outline in his speech Sunday afternoon.
‘He’s going to lay out how we’re going to take back the House and the Senate in 2022, because that’s the first mission,’ he told Fox.
In calling for the Party to come together, Trump will also detail a ‘pathway’ for taking back the majority in Congress in 2022, including pushing his repeated claims of voter fraud and proposing ways to stop it.
Stripped of his Twitter account, Trump’s only means of communication with the public have been through occasional statements released from the ‘Office of the 45th President’, which he formed after leaving Washington.
He also broke his media silence earlier this month when he joined Fox News by phone for a tribute to conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who died of cancer.
One Republican Trump plans to go after is Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (right), who during an awkward moment at a press conference on Wednesday alongside Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said of Trump: ‘I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country’
Despite his message of bringing the party back together amidst a slew of Republicans breaking with the former president, Trump is also reportedly considering lashing out at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in his speech.
Trump could express anger over other GOP defections in his second impeachment.
The former president is still stewing over McCarthy’s decision to keep Representative Liz Cheney in two House GOP roles after she voted to impeach, three sources told Politico.
Last month, McCarthy flew to Mar-a-Lago in a bid to patch things up after saying that Trump ‘bears responsibility’ for the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The California Republican’s effort to appease Trump continued this week, when McCarthy took a swipe at Cheney during an appearance on Fox News, suggesting that she supports cancel culture.
The two Republican representatives got into an awkward shuffle at a press conference Wednesday, when a reporter asked Cheney if Trump should be speaking at CPAC.
‘I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country,’ she replied, as McCarthy stood by.
‘On that high note, thank you all very much,’ McCarthy added, swiftly concluding the press conference.
Last month, McCarthy (right) flew to Mar-a-Lago in a bid to patch things up with Trump after saying that the former president ‘bears responsibility’ for the January 6 riot
McCarthy used a CPAC panel on Saturday to lavish praise on Trump, crediting the former president for securing GOP gains in the House in the 2020 elections
At a CPAC panel on Saturday, McCarthy overflowed with praise for Trump, crediting the former president for significant GOP gains in the House in November elections.
‘You know why we won that? President Trump worked on all these races,’ McCarthy said. ‘Even when President Trump was sick with COVID, he called me one night from the hospital and said ‘Kevin we’ve got to keep doing this.”
‘He couldn’t do the rallies, so he would do these rallies over the phone for each district, and he would have the candidate on and he would talk, and it turned out the votes.’
The minority leader’s top priority is returning a GOP majority to the House in the midterm elections, which would seize the gavel from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Lewandowski also put support behind McCarthy on Sunday, claiming he should be the leader of the House, not Pelosi.
‘We believe that Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy have a better opportunity to lead our country than Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi respectively,’ Lewandowksi told Fox of the whole Republican Party as the last day of CPAC commenced. ‘Now, we may have a different way to get there. We may have different candidates.’
‘We want the Republicans to be in the majority, and the president is going to have a big say in how that happens for 2022,’ he said. ‘Yeah we may not agree on all the candidates, we are going to go after some candidates that made some bad votes – Liz Cheney is on that list, Alex Gonzalez is on that list.’