Trump Disses Ron Paul
In front of a CPAC crowd full of Ron Paul supporters, Donald Trump pulled no punches and made it clear that their chosen candidate won't be president.
Donald Trump is the surprise speaker at CPAC this year. The speaker who introduced Trump had this to say about him: "During this time when people want jobs, there is a shockingly long line of people who want to be fired.
And what does someone from the audience shout at soon as the Donald took the stadium?
"You're fired!"
Trump jokingly pointed back.
Trump also announces to the audience that he "will decide by June" if he becomes a candidate for the Presidency. Why? Because the world is not treating us with "respect", and the U.S. has become a "whipping post." The United States is becoming the laughing stock of the world."
How does Trump know this? He adds: "I deal with people from China, Mexico, they can't believe what they are getting away with." The story behind this is how Trump's business experience is forming his very foreign policy-centric world view.
"I've always been told that a person of great accomplishment or achievement can't run for President." But what does Trump think about this claim? He argues: "This theory has never been tested, because serious people don't want to be scrutinized or abused." However he also believes (about himself), that "this is the kind of person the country needs right now."
So far, Trump's speech is showing that it didn't get written with an eye to GOP talking points. There is nothing about the debt, and nothing about spending.
Trump adds: "Steve Forbes stated that I was one of the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of free trade."
He humbly points out that "we don't have free trade" and that he is a supporter of "fair trade." (Fair trade in this case presumably is actually an attack on Chinese trade policy.)
This is a very different sort of speech, a focus on international competitiveness, nothing about domestic politics at all.
When Trump then proceeded to say we need a "very serious person" to be president, someone in blogger's row shouts "Ron Paul!" and manages to get a rather large series of applauses.
Trump then digresses into critiquing OPEC for high gas prices.
One thing's certain about Trump: this is not a typical CPAC speech.
How do you get the entire audience up to their feet? Trump says: "We need a good candidate for President."
A random audience member shouts out: "Ron Paul!"
Trump pulls no punches with the crowd and levels with them, replying that Ron Paul can't get elected.
The audience goes extreme. A Mix of boos, cheers, jeers, and shouts of "You're fired!"
The crowd, it should be noted, is anticipating Rand Paul's speech, which explains why the room is in a particularly Pro-Paul mood at the moment.
Trump wraps up a slightly bizarre speech with a litany of GOP talking points, as if they were added at the end to make sure the speech was actually being given at CPAC. He throws several bones of the "I'm pro life" and "I oppose Obamacare" variety. All while losing any appeal among the Ron Paul fans in the audience.
One question the audience is pondering: Is Trump a credible candidate for President? For what it's worth, he clearly wants to talk foreign trade and investment, and that will definitely be a change in the sort of talking points one sees on the GOP campaign trail -- perhaps in the same way that Dennis Kucinich tried to inject "The Department of Peace" into the Democratic primary.
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