A freewheeling President Donald Trump offered a political greatest hits reel Friday to the highest-profile right-wing gathering of the year, basking in conservative plaudits for what he characterized as a triumphant first year in office.
Quickly discarding prepared remarks he deemed “sort of boring,” Trump lit into Democrats and even some Republicans who he deemed insufficiently doctrinaire, and again called for teachers to be armed in schools as a response to the Florida shooting last week.
He welcomed familiar chants like “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton, the opponent he defeated 15 months ago. And he pledged to protect gun ownership rights, even amid an emotional national debate over guns in which he’d pledged new restrictions.
It was Trump’s second appearance as President at the Conservative Political Action Conference, held just outside Washington in Maryland. His speech at CPAC last year was a blistering and dark diatribe that cemented the notion that Trump would not adhere to presidential norms.
This time around, Trump was more upbeat. He declared his administration “has had the most successful first year in the history of the presidency,” naming tax cuts and a regulatory overhaul as his chief accomplishments.
And he was gleeful in his assaults on political rivals. He deemed Democrats “really crazed.” And though he didn’t name Sen. John McCain, the ailing Arizona Republican, he lashed out at his vote against a health care repeal that many Republicans backed.
“It would be controversial so I won’t use his name,” Trump said. “What a mess.”
The Republicans who organize CPAC and fill its speaking roster have sometimes cringed at Trump’s harsh rhetoric, but they tolerate it in the hopes he can help shepherd through a staunchly conservative agenda.
They have largely been rewarded over the past year, as Trump has approved sweeping tax cuts that include slashing the corporate rate, a massive unraveling of regulations and the partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Their tolerance for Trump’s crude brashness may be tested in the gun debate. The President has vowed to take action to prevent school shootings like the one in Florida last week, and he has expressed openness to at least one measure opposed by the National Rifle Association: raising the minimum age to purchase firearms like the AR-15.
On Friday, however, Trump declared himself firm in his support for gun ownership rights, despite his pledges this week to take some action on guns.
“They will put judges in that you wouldn’t believe, they’ll take away your 2nd Amendment, which we will never allow to happen, they’ll take away your 2nd Amendment,” he said of Democrats to raucous cheers from the crowd, which skews younger.
“Remember that,” Trump said, “they will take away those massive tax cuts, and they will take away your Second Amendment.”
Opening his speech Friday, Trump touted accomplishments, despite what he said was skepticism about his conservative bona fides.
“Remember when I first started running — I started running and people said are you sure he’s a conservative. I think now we can say I’m a conservative,” he said. “We have put more great conservative ideas into use than perhaps ever before in American history.”
In his speech, he addressed last week’s shooting in Florida and continued his call for some teachers to be armed.
“When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones it just puts our students in far more danger,” he said.
