MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump announces his new presidential bid will be “the last battle”

Trump also pledged to “prevent, very easily, World War III; and you're going to have World War III if something doesn't happen fast”

Former US President Donald Trump said during his speech Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) gathering in Maryland that “this is the final battle,” in his first major public appearance since leaving the White House.

Now officially a contender for the Republican primaries ahead of next year's elections, Trump made it clear that all the other presidential candidates represented an establishment “we're never going back to.”

“Now I am experienced and I know the people of Washington,” he stressed. “We'll appropriately deal with the RINOs,” he also pointed out in reference to the so-called “Republicans In Name Only.”

“We will never go back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush.”

“We are never going back to the people that want to destroy our great social security system … even some in our own party, I wonder who that might be,” he also said without mentioning his former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the United Nations.

Trump also pledged to “prevent, very easily, World War III. And you're going to have World War III if something doesn't happen fast.”

Regarding the lawsuits against him, Trump argued that “every time the polls get higher and higher, the prosecutors get crazier and crazier.” He also joked he had not heard the word “subpoena” until after he became president. “They're not coming after me, they're coming after you, and that's why I'm standing here today. I'm standing before you because we're going to finish what we started. We're going to complete the mission,” Trump said.

Trump's words were very similar to those of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who also appeared at the Maryland CPAC gathering to say that his mission was not over. And like Bolsonaro regarding his 2022 loss to Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, Trump hinted he had won the 2020 elections against Joseph Biden.

Trump added that, if elected, he would tackle the increasing crime wave nationwide.

Regarding other possible presidential contenders skipping the CPAC, Trump posted on social media that they were not attending because they knew the crowds had “no interest in anything they have to say. They've heard it all before, and don't want to hear it again.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is considered Trump's biggest threat in a primary. Trump, who is yet to announce his candidacy but who in 2018 supported DeSantis' bid in Florida, usually refers to him as “Ron DeSanctimonious” and has ran Facebook ads of pictures of when they were on good terms reading “An Apprentice Learning from the Master.”

Read also:  “My mission is not over,” Bolsonaro tells conservatives at “Trumpfest” event