Washington: Donald Trump returned to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving the White House 18 months ago, delivering a fiery speech sprinkled with strong hints he may run for president again in 2024.
"It was a catastrophe that election. A disgrace to our country," he said, insisting despite all evidence that he had won in 2020. "We may just have to do it again," he said, repeating as he does in all recent appearances the ever-clearer hints that he will run again in 2024.
Trump's 90-minute address to the conservative America First Policy Institute echoed many of the themes of his victorious 2016 campaign, including illegal immigration and crime.
Trump repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 election and denounced the House committee investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters as the work of "political hacks and thugs."
"If I renounced my beliefs, if I agreed to stay silent, if I stayed at home and just took it easy, the persecution of Donald Trump would stop immediately," he said. "But that's not what I will do. I can't do that.
"They really want to damage me so I can no longer go back to work for you," he said.
"And I don't think that's going to happen," he added, prompting chants from the crowd of "Four more years!"
Trump lashed out repeatedly at Democratic President Joe Biden, blaming him for the country's ills.
"We are a nation in decline," he said. "We are a failing nation."
"Inflation is the highest in 49 years," Trump said "Gas prices have reached the highest in the history of our country."
He accused Biden of allowing an "invasion" by millions of migrants crossing the southern border.
"The next Republican president must immediately implement every aspect of the Trump agenda that achieved the most secure border in history," he said.
Trump said the United States "is now a cesspool of crime."
"We have blood, death and suffering on a scale once unthinkable," he said. "Democrat-run cities are setting all-time murder records."
He accused Biden of having "surrendered in Afghanistan," and allowing Russia to invade Ukraine.
"It would never ever, ever have happened if I was your commander-in-chief," he said.