Donald Trump largely refrains from rioting. The former president enters the stage of the CPAC conference and speaks calmly at first. The cheers of the crowd do not tempt him to turn up. Perhaps it is the world situation. Perhaps it is also his very personal situation, i.e. the fact that he is no longer so uncontroversial in his party. In any case, Trump is about to start talking about the war in Ukraine.

Sofia Dreisbach

North American political correspondent based in Washington.

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Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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Under him, the "endless wars" will no longer be fought. Then the Republican says everyone wants success in Ukraine. But for the allies in NATO, this is much more important than for America. So why doesn't Europe pay more for it? And one more thing: America has allowed China, Russia and Iran to ally themselves. That would not have happened under him. The Democrats would have said: Under him as president, it would come to the third world war, just because of his personality. His personality had prevented the Third World War.

Home game for Trump

Trump's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday night at a convention center near Washington is a home game. Immediately before the speech, the organizers had published the result of a non-representative survey among the participants: 60 percent of them want Trump as a presidential candidate for 2024. 20 percent prefer Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida. CPAC, for decades the central debate platform in the party, is now a Trumpist association. The fact that twenty percent of the participants prefer to go into the field with DeSantis, who does not show up at the conference, cannot please Trump.

As usual, Trump talks up reality. He says polls show he will win against Joe Biden. This is precisely the reason why he is being investigated. "The better the poll numbers, the more prosecutors go crazy." Trump behaves as a victim in the usual manner. That may resonate with his followers. But even there, it is known that Biden has historically poor poll ratings. Nevertheless, pollsters predict that the incumbent would beat his predecessor again.

Support from Bolsonaro, the "Tropical Trump"

Trump's political nuclear family had gathered at the conference: Rick Grenell, his former ambassador in Berlin, who pointed out that Vladimir Putin would not have dared to attack Kiev under Trump. Also Steve Bannon, Trump's temporary chief strategist, who enjoyed himself at the conference with his far-right podcast "War Room". Also Stephen Miller, the former presidential adviser, who was celebrated on the podium for his demand to suspend all immigration to America, including the legal one. Trump's son Don Junior also hardly avoided a microphone – and from his refuge in Florida came Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, who had copied the right-wing populism of the Republican so perfectly during his term of office that he was called the "tropical" Trump. Everyone is talking about the good old days.