Trump attacks Democratic presidential hopefuls during CPAC speech

OXON HILL, Md. — President Donald Trump told a packed room of boisterous conservatives that Democrats want to take away “your money, take away your choice, take away your speech, their guns, take away your guns, take away your religion and ultimately their religion, take away your history, take away your future and take away ultimately your freedom,” during the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday afternoon.

It was Trump’s fourth CPAC address as president in as many years — and yet another sign that turning out his devoted base will be key to Trump’s strategy to win re-election in November.

Last year, Trump hugged the American flag as he began to address CPAC – making for an iconic photo opportunity.

On Saturday, Trump presented a new image bound to go viral – in an impersonation of former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, whom Trump has dubbed “mini-Mike,” during the Nevada Democratic presidential debate, the president crouched so that his chin barely cleared the podium.

That moment of mockery earned Trump cheers and a standing ovation from fans waving red Keep America Great hats.

Bloomberg recently countered Trump’s mocking of his height, noting, “Where I come from, we measure your height from your neck up.”

Over the 90-minute speech, Trump took shots at the field of Democrats competing in the presidential primary, tossing out his usual nicknames – “Sleepy Joe” Biden for the former vice president, “Crazy Bernie” for the Vermont Sen. Sanders, “Pocahontas” for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and “Alfred E. Neuman” for the former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Trump offered the boisterous crowd the sort of brutal personal takedowns that destroyed his GOP opponents in 2016 and left the 2020 CPAC room cheering for more.

If Biden wins, Trump proclaimed, “Joe’s not going to be running the government. He’s going to be sitting in a home someplace.”

Trump also told the sea of red hats that if Sanders wins the primary, he will hammer the Democratic nominee for arguing in favor of allowing every U.S. citizen, including convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to vote.

“Perhaps I’m not nice, but I’m doing a great job,” Trump said at one point in a twist on earlier claims that many Americans may not like him, but they will vote for him.

Trump recalled that he had decided that as president he didn’t think he’d have time to speak at CPAC more than once as president, but he kept finding himself back at the conservative Woodstock. Last year, Trump spoke for more than two hours.

He promised to return in 2021.

His relationship with CPAC has not always been rosy. In 2016, after he backed out of speaking at the event, Trump came in third in CPAC’s straw poll — with only 15 percent of support, and behind 40 percent for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and 30 percent for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.