Trump is once again presenting himself as the antidote to all the ills of the United States.

Everything remains the same on planet Trump. More than two years after losing the election to Democrat Joe Biden, Donald Trump on Saturday night harangued his most loyal supporters to mobilize them for the 2024 campaign. Thus, he closed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), with half capacity.

The speech was given at CPAC, which was taken over by the wing of the Republican Party most loyal to the former president. Such a context eliminated the need to appeal to more moderates in his party and, consequently, to subject the discourse to material reality. So Trump presented himself — once again — as the antidote to cure all the ills that afflict the United States: his victory would put an end to inflation and the Republican elites before him, whom he described as “a bunch of nerds, neocons, globalists, open borders fanatics and jerks.” “We will never again be the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and Jeb Bush,” he said, referring to former Republican leaders known for their restraint.

In his speech, Trump had time to refer to his good relationship with authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping, and to greet another of the giants of the global extreme right, the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, who attended the speech in public, as a famous guest of CPAC. At a time when the Russian invasion of Ukraine had just celebrated its first anniversary, Trump allowed himself to speculate that such an event would not have happened if he were an occupant of the White House and mentioned that he “gets along very well with Putin”.

The tycoon’s speech was full of jokes and accusations without reference to reality in an effort to provide his followers with the latest information on the world according to Donald Trump. For example, if until a week ago the Fox network consisted of “Rinos [acrónimo de republicano solo de nombre] incompetent” now harboring “Pulitzer-worthy” journalists.

Trump’s race for the White House will not only have to overcome the challenge of an unusually competitive primary. You will also have to overcome potential charges arising from the various legal cases you have filed. To them, Trump said that they will not cause his resignation in any case.

“In 2016, I said I was your voice,” Trump told CPAC attendees. “Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And to those who have been mistreated and betrayed, I am your revenge.” Once again, the world under Donald Trump has shown itself to be more and more like the world under Vladimir Putin: a fight against a fictional conspiracy that unites all those who disagree with them. The context in which it exists just them and us. For Putin, they are the open and democratic western world. And for Trump, increasingly. For both, the only possible answer is the same: war.