Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at an America First Policy Institute agenda summit at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Former President Donald Trump returned to Washington for the first time since leaving office on Tuesday, strongly reiterating his false campaign claims that sparked the Jan. 6 riot near Capitol Hill. “This election was a disaster. Shame on our country,” he said, insisting despite all evidence that he won in 2020. “We might just have to do it again,” he said, repeating as he does in all the recent Apparently, all and it is more clearly implied that he will run again in 2024. Recently, he often drew applause and cheers from his audience, a meeting organized by a group of former White House officials and Cabinet members who laid out an agenda for a possible second Trump term. Trump’s appearance in the nation’s capital — his first trip back since Jan. 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden was sworn into office despite Trump’s frantic efforts to stay in office — comes as allies urged him to spend more time speaking. about his vision of the future and a less repeatable 2020 election as he prepares to announce an anticipated White House campaign in 2024. Trump spoke hours after former Vice President Mike Pence, a potential 2024 challenger, outlined his own “Freedom Agenda” in a speech nearby. While the former president remains reeling from an election he falsely claims was stolen from him a year and a half ago, Pence again called on conservatives to stop looking back and focus on the future as he considers his own. “Some people may choose to focus on the past, but the election is about the future,” Pence said in a speech to the Young America’s Foundation, a student conservative group. “I think conservatives need to focus on the future to win America back. We can We can’t afford to take our eyes off the road ahead, because what’s at stake is the very survival of our way of life.” The former White House partners made dueling appearances again after campaigning for rival candidates in Arizona on Friday. Their separate speeches come amid news that Pence’s former chief of staff, Mark Short, testified before a federal grand jury investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Short was on Capitol Hill that day as Pence fled an angry mob of rioters who called for his hanging after Trump wrongly insisted that Pence had the power to overturn the election results. Pence has repeatedly defended his actions that day, even as his decision to stand up to his boss turned large parts of Trump’s loyal base against him. Polls show Trump remains, by far, the top choice of GOP primary voters, with Pence trailing far behind. That contrast was on display Tuesday as Trump addressed an audience of hundreds gathered for the America First Policy Institute’s two-day America First Agenda Summit. Comprised of former Trump administration officials and allies, the group is widely seen as an “administration-in-waiting” that could quickly move into the West Wing if Trump runs again and wins. The event had the feel of a Trump White House reunion — but without Pence. Pence, meanwhile, received a friendly – but not enthusiastic – welcome from the students, who struggled to break into chants of “USA!” In his remarks, he repeatedly mocked the “Trump-Pence administration.” But the first question he took during a brief question-and-answer session was about his growing rift with Trump, which is particularly acute given his years as the former. the president’s most loyal aide. Pence denied that the two “differ on issues” but acknowledged that “we may differ on focus.” “I truly believe that the election is about the future and that it is absolutely necessary, at a time when so many Americans are hurting and so many families are struggling, that we not give in to the temptation to look back,” he said. . Also Tuesday, Simon & Schuster announced the title of Pence’s upcoming book, “So Help Me God,” which will be released in November. The publisher said the book, in part, will chronicle “President Trump’s termination of their relationship on January 6, 2021, when Pence fulfilled his oath to the Constitution.” Trump has spent much of his time since leaving office spreading lies about his loss to cast doubt on Biden’s victory. Indeed, even as a Jan. 6 House committee exposed his efforts to stay in office and his refusal to withdraw a violent mob of his supporters as they tried to stop a peaceful transition of power, Trump continued to try to push officials to overturn Biden’s victory, despite the fact that there is no legal means to validate it. Rep. Tommy Tamperville of Alabama said he would be among several GOP senators attending Trump’s speech. “You’re going to hear the same thing you hear in all the other speeches,” Tuberville told reporters on Capitol Hill. “But, you know, go down there and listen, as many of us would.” Beyond the summit, the America First Policy Institute has been preparing for another possible Trump administration, “making sure we have the policies, staffing and process in place for every key agency when we take back the White House,” its president said. , Brooke Rollins. The group is one of several Trump-allied organizations that have continued to push his policies in his absence, including America First Legal, dedicated to fighting Biden’s agenda through the court system, the Center for American Renewal and the Conservative Institute Cooperation.
