MOST OF THE MEDIA FIXATED ON HIS LEGAL WOES, BUT TRUMP HAD ANOTHER MESSAGE, AND PEOPLE HAD BETTER LISTEN UP.
PALM BEACH, Florida – Former President Donald J. Trump gave both barrels to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the wider ‘lawfare’ campaign against him during a short and fiery speech to a massive, raucous crowd of his supporters at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Tuesday night.
Trump, who had just stepped off his ‘Trump Force One’ plane from New York, clearly decided that, as ever, the best defense is a good offense. He used the remarks to level a litany of accusations at his pursuers, setting America’s political left shrieking about how he won’t just lay down and die.
“God bless you all, and I never thought anything like this could happen in America,” he opened, to a raucous audience of MAGA stalwarts and Mar-a-Lago club regulars.
Guests were invited on relatively short notice, to the speech immediately following Trump’s appearance in a Manhattan court room. The logistical concerns scarcely hampered the hundreds who thronged to Palm Beach island, parking their cars and trucks against the river, some of which were adorned with humorous pro-Trump messaging:
Outside MAL last night. pic.twitter.com/GEuQ4Shvro
— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) April 5, 2023
Inside the Donald J. Trump Presidential Ballroom, the press packed the back wall with stages, lighting rigs, and staffing at levels unseen since the height of 2016’s presidential election.
“The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” said Trump, in an unusually disciplined address.
“The USA is a mess. Our economy is crashing, inflation is out of control. Russia has joined with China… Saudi Arabia has joined with Iran. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have formed together as a menacing and destructive coalition,” he blasted.
“It would’ve never happened if I were your President, it would never have happened, nor would Russia attacking Ukraine have happened. All of those lives would be saved. All of those beautiful cities would be standing,” he declared.
In a nod to what many are claiming is an impending recession of significant magnitude, Trump prophesied: “Our currency is crashing and will soon no longer be the world’s standard, which will be our greatest defeat, frankly, in 200 years. There will be no defeat like that. That will take us away from being even a great power.”
Beyond the issues in New York, the populist leader said he had to contend with the likes of “a local racist Democrat district attorney in Atlanta who is doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call, even more perfect than the one I made with the president of Ukraine” – namely Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election and it should be dropped immediately,” Trump declared.
The former president also took aim at “the boxes hoax” related to supposedly classified documents he had in his possession, which saw Mar-a-Lago “raided by many gun-toting FBI agents, who took whatever they wanted, including my passports and medical records.”
“Everybody was in shock. Nobody had ever heard of such a raid before. We can’t even believe it. Who would think that that could happen today? I immediately thought of the Fourth Amendment that protects against unreasonable search and seizure, but they did it anyway because our justice system has become lawless,” he accused, adding that the authorities are apparently investigating him under the Espionage Act of 1917 – “where the penalty is death”.
He contrasted his treatment with that of Joe Biden, saying the 80-year-old Democrat had taken “massive amounts” of documents and “even removed many boxes to Chinatown.”
“As President, I have the right to declassify documents and the process is automatic. If I take them with me, it’s automatic, declassified. Biden was Vice President. He had absolutely no right to declassify as Vice President,” Trump insisted – but added that “it’s not going to matter” because the authorities “don’t follow the law” impartially.
“Incredibly, we are now a failing nation. We are a nation in decline, and now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. We can’t let that happen,” he declared.
“With all of this being said and with a very dark cloud over our beloved country, I have no doubt nevertheless that we will make America great again. Thank you very much and God bless you, and God bless America.”