Using a World War II phrase as Russia is testing NATO in Europe, former President Donald Trump said the “sleeping giant” conservative MAGA movement has awoken.
“A major war in Europe may very well erupt; that’s how they start, exactly what’s happening today – this is how they start,” Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday in Orlando, Florida. “Joe Biden has turned calm into chaos, competence into incompetence, stability into anarchy, and security into catastrophe.”
“The Russian attack on Ukraine is appalling; it’s an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur, it never would have occurred.
“We are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. God bless them all.”
Trump took direct aim at his predecessors for allowing Russia’s Vladimir Putin to invade other countries.
“As everyone understands, this horrific disaster would never have happened if our election was not rigged, and if I was the president,” Trump continued. “Very simple: It wouldn’t have happened. Under Bush, Russia invaded Georgia. Under Obama, Russia took Crimea. Under Biden, Russia invaded Ukraine.
“I stand as the only president of the 21st century on whose watch Russia did not invade another country.”
Despite leftist media claiming Trump has praised Putin to a fault, Trump reminded the crowd he gave lethal aid to Ukraine.
“I gave Ukraine the Javelins that everyone is now talking about and millions of dollars of other military equipment—the Obama Administration gave them blankets,” Trump said.
“Reporters asked me if I thought President Putin was smart; I said, ‘Of course, he’s smart – to which I was greeted with, ‘ah, that’s such a terrible thing to say.'”
Trump added he is saying Putin is merely outsmarting Biden, our “dumb” leaders, and other world leaders.
“NATO nations and indeed the world, as he looks over what’s happening strategically with no repercussions or threats whatsoever,” Trump continued. “They’re not so smart. They’re looking the opposite of smart: ‘If you take over Ukraine, we’re going to sanction you.’
“They say, ‘sanction? Well, that’s a pretty weak statement.’ Putin is saying, ‘oh, they’re going to sanction me; they sanctioned me for the last 25 years – you mean I can take over all the country, and they’re gonna sanction me. You mean they’re not going to blow us to pieces?'”
“The problem is not that Putin is smart, which of course he is, but that our leaders are dumb — they so far allowed him to get away with this travesty and assault on humanity.
“Putin is playing Biden like a drum, and it is not a pretty thing to watch, and it would have been so easy for me to stop this travesty from happening.”
Trump also took aim at Democrats.
“Socialist globalists, Marxists, and communists who are attacking our civilization have no idea of the sleeping giant they have awoken,” Trump said.
“We are a sleeping giant. They cannot even begin to imagine the brave and righteous spirit they’ve unleashed in men and women.”
Trump began with a stark message for Democrats before the 2022 midterms.
“The radical left is exposed, they’re weak, and their pathetic policies of been out there long enough now that we don’t want them – we will never take him,” Trump told the crowd. “We are bringing back our country and we are bringing back our freedom.”
Trump called Democrats the worst opponent he has faced, while praising Ukraine President Volodymyr Zeleneskyy.
“The worst are the politicians,” Trump said. “The toughest are the politicians. The meanest are the politicians. And the biggest lying scum are the politicians – like Adam ‘shifty’ Schiff. Where do you meet people like this?
“He actually made up a story about my phone call with the president of Ukraine, who, by the way, is a brave man; he’s hanging in.”
Trump praised the office of the presidency, while rebuking President Joe Biden for embarrassing the U.S. on the world stage.
“This year we’re being vividly reminded how fragile and precious that heritage really is,” Trump said. “I never knew how important being president was.”
U.S. self-confidence is lost under Biden, Trump lamented.
“You could take the five worst presidents in American history and put them together and they would not have done the damage that Joe Biden is administration has done in just a very short 13 months,” Trump continued. “And no matter how you look at it, our country has totally lost its self-confidence, lost its self confidence. We, as a country, have no confidence anymore.
“But we will get it back and we’ll get it back stronger than ever before.”