Trump Speaks to Largest Conservative Conference Crowd in History

Published: 3/2/2019, 6:28:23 PM EST

OXON HILL, Md.—President Donald Trump drew cheers on legal immigration and boos on the Democrats' Green New Deal before an exuberant crowd on the last day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the highest attended conference in its 45-year history.

After hugging the flag as he walked on stage, he greeted the crowd as "great patriots, old friends, and young conservatives."

"Our movement and our future in this country is unlimited ... and I think we're going to do it again in 2020," he said to chants of "USA, USA, USA."

According to organizers, 9,252 attended at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center in at the National Harbor in Maryland—a record—with over 9,000 people offsite at three satellite campuses.

"Our overflow rooms have overflow rooms," said Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union, the organizer of the event.

The first CPAC was held in 1974.

Pointing to the crowd in front of him, Trump joked that the people who had made it onto the convention center floor were "just better at real estate" than the others, a joke that drew loud cheers.

He also took a jab at some of the Democrats' support for a Green New Deal, joking that Americans would have to take boats to get to Hawaii if the deal went through, and saying there was still no plan for how to travel to Europe if airplanes were eliminated.

President Trump hugs the flag on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2019, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on March 2, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) — President Trump hugs the flag on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2019, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on March 2, 2019. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Trump's comments were based off documents circulated by the office of freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), since deleted, that said the Green New Deal "sets a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, at the end of this 10-year plan because we aren’t sure that we will be able to fully get rid of, for example, emissions from cows or air travel before then."

The biggest applause line came when he promised America "will never be a socialist country," echoing a speech he gave to the Venezualan American community in Miami, Florida, on Feb. 18.

He brought on stage with him Hayden Williams, an employee of the Leadership Institute who was assaulted on the UC Berkeley campus Feb. 19 while "working to recruit conservative student leaders in his capacity as Field Representative for The Leadership Institute," the institute says on its website.

"There's so many conservative students across the country who are facing discrimination, harassment, and worse if they dare to speak up on campus," Williams said.

Trump drew applause when he suggested Williams sue the university and the state. He then announced that he plans to sign an executive order that would require colleges to support free speech if they want federal research dollars.

"He took a hard punch in the face for all of us," Trump said. "And we can never allow that to happen."

Trump was fresh off a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam, where he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their second summit.

The two failed to reach a deal on moving forward with North Korea's denuclearization, but Trump said it was a positive meeting that advanced the two countries' relationship nonetheless.