Two years after he used an address at CPAC, an influential conservative gathering, to declare to his supporters that “I am your retribution,” Mr. Trump took a victory lap amid his wide-reaching efforts to reshape the federal government in his image, including firing thousands of federal workers and dismantling the government’s main international development agency. “We have escorted the radical-left bureaucrats out of the building and have locked the doors behind them,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ve gotten rid of thousands.” The speech took place against the backdrop of a conference that for several days has sought to cast Mr. Trump’s second win as a turning point in a global and increasingly successful crusade by right-wing political movements against institutions and norms that they believe have oppressed them.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that “nobody’s ever seen anything” like his administration’s sweeping effort to fire thousands of federal employees and shrink the size of government, congratulating himself for “dominating” Washington and sending bureaucrats “packing.” Addressing an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside the nation’s capital, Trump promised, “We’re going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come.” The president argues that voters gave him a mandate to overhaul government while cracking down on the U.S.-Mexico border and extending tax cuts that were the signature policy of his first administration.
Trump closed out what was an 80-minute address by vowing to “stand strong” and “fight” for America over the next four years. “As of Jan. 20, 2025, the dark days of the high taxes, crushing regulations, rampant inflation, flagrant corruption, government weaponization and total incompetence — those days are over,” he said. “But we cannot stop now! We are going to push forward every single day! “In the immortal words of that great American hero, Capt. John Paul Jones, ‘I have not yet begun to fight!” he said, quoting the American Revolutionary War naval commander. “And neither have you!” a smiling Trump added while the crowd later chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” “So for the next four years, we are going to stand strong, we are going to work hard, We are going to fight, fight, fight and win, win, win!”
