Former President Donald Trump dominated the potential field of 2024 Republican contenders at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit held in Tampa on Saturday.
As the keynote speaker, Trump offered many hints and teases toward another presidential run and took plenty of barbs at the current occupant of the White House.
Full Video – Trump Speech at TPUSA Summit
In case you missed the chance, here’s the full video of Donald Trump’s speech from the TPUSA summit in Tampa, courtesy of Rumble and RSBN. The event took place on Saturday, July 23, 2022.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also spoke, along with a handful of other noteworthy names in the conservative movement.
Among the event festivities, a straw poll was taken of attendees asking which candidate they would prefer in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. With the event taking place in Florida, a home-field advantage could come into play for DeSantis but that was not the case.
The results were rather lopsided in favor of one candidate:
No other candidate came close to Trump with DeSantis trailing by nearly 60 points and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem barely getting on the scoreboard.
During his speech, Trump made numerous references to a possible presidential run and implied that he could not simply sit home while the country suffered under the Biden administration:
“If I stayed home, if I announced that I was not going to run for office, the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop,” Trump also said later in the speech. “But that’s what they want me to do. And you know what? There’s no chance I do that.”
Trump closed his speech saying that with President Biden’s presidency, his reelection slogan of “keep America great,” is now outdated. But, Trump said, “we will make America great again.”
As far as potential Democratic opponents, attendees felt that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would be the most difficult challenge:
30.3% of attendees said California Gov. Gavin Newsom would be the most difficult for a Republican to beat; 13.6% said former First Lady Michelle Obama; 10.5% said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; 10.3% said Sen. Bernie Sanders; 7.9% said Vice President Kamala Harris; 5.9% said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Turning Point USA, as an organization, caters to college and high school voters working to foster a group of conservative activists, volunteers, and future leaders within the Republican Party. For Trump to perform well among a crowd that skews younger is noteworthy in itself.
The conservative base of the GOP hasn’t lost an appetite to see Trump run again in 2024. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the party will come around to that position or look elsewhere.
Despite ongoing pressure from the highly partisan January 6 primetime committee heartings, Trump appears to be gaining momentum for his cause heading into the midterms.
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