Donald Trump kicked off the second day of CPAC, entering the stage to a standing ovation from attendees. Little did they know that the businessman had come to lecture them about the dangers of becoming too conservative.
The businessman declared that “the Republican Party is in serious trouble, especially as you become more conservative.” Trump stressed the importance of regaining the momentum in the political sphere; however, his idea of how to do so may vary slightly from that of many of the attendees and conservatives around the country.
When it comes to Republicans wanting to reform Medicare and Social Security, Trump stated that changing those for the worse will result in more losses for the GOP- people, he said, “even the Tea Party, whom I dearly love,” are against drastically changing the Medicare and Social Security systems. Is it possible for Republicans to win in the future if they insist on reforming this broken system? In Trump’s opinion, “Not going to happen.”
In 2010, Trump announced his bid for president of the United States, but later announced he would actually not be a candidate.
Trump also speculated as to why we seem to be so against allowing immigrants from Europe to come. He told a story of a European friend’s son who graduated from the top of his class at Harvard, then was forced to go back to his home country because he was not allowed to remain in the United States. Immigration reform, he said, is a huge issue to tackle that will have enormous consequences; there are 11 million Hispanics in this country and “every one of these 11 million people will be voting Democratic.”
From the tone of his remarks, amnesty, specifically for college students studying in the United States, is something Trump would support; regarding the stance of not allowing them to stay in the United States after college, he commented: “How stupid is that?”
Kudos to Mr. Trump for further solidifying many conservatives’ views and encouraging them to be even more active in winning people over to the conservative cause. Maybe he missed the memo that this was a conservative conference with a conservative audience, so his message should be tailored toward conservatism; or, maybe he decided that a lecture on the evils of extreme conservatism would be the best fit for a room full of conservatives.
