She implicitly criticized the Trump administration for not doing more to take on China when it came to the coronavirus pandemic and, in contrast with Trump’s comments in recent weeks, criticized Russia for its moves in Ukraine.
“When China gave covid to the world and millions of people died, what did we do? We didn’t even call one pitiful meeting at the United Nations,” she said. “We didn’t ask China to step up. … We’ve done nothing about it.”
Several people in the room said that Trump’s speech stretched far too long and that he sounded like he was rambling more in the last 30 minutes. In the middle of the speech, attendees said people in the crowd seemed to lose interest.
Trump came to the dinner as the leading figure in the GOP, but his influence has waned in recent months, according to polls and interviews with activists and donors. Though he has raised more money than any other Republican since leaving office — his political action committee has more than $120 million — he has seen some erosion in support.
That Trump came to New Orleans at all — he rarely leaves his properties — and that the GOP did not hold the event in Palm Beach, Fla., at his club as they did last year were signs to some that his influence has faded. Last year, his speech was widely panned, and some donors left early, as he made it all about the election.
Trump spent much of the evening talking about the fighting in Ukraine and sought to project strength on his foreign policy record, regaling the crowd with a long story about how his administration took on the Islamic State militant group.
He bragged about pushing NATO — which he called a “paper tiger” — to force its countries to pay more for joint defense, but did not mention that he threatened to pull out altogether. He attacked Biden for rising inflation and gas prices, using exaggerated numbers in some cases, and said countries were “emptying their prisons” in the United States until he came along.
He mocked Biden for continually saying the United States would not militarily attack Russia but offered ambivalence on exactly what he could do. “We’re not spreading democracy at the point of a gun,” he said. Trump said Putin had talked more about nuclear power recently because he did not respect Biden, but he did not offer proof. And he said Biden should take a more belligerent tone.
“At what point do we say can we not take this massive crime against humanity? We can’t let it happen. We can’t let it continue to happen,” he said.
He said the military, under his watch, had gotten in “skirmishes” with Russian troops and won, but he did not say more.
And he ominously spoke of Putin being more willing to engage in nuclear war — even referencing World War III — because Biden is president. He said that around the world, others would become more aggressive, too, without him.
“Watch China. You watch what’s going to happen there. Everything seems to be falling to pieces,” he said. “His complete and gross incompetence, they threaten a much wider world.”
Biden has received some plaudits for his handling of the Ukraine situation among foreign policy experts.
Trump reiterated some of his frequently repeated falsehoods and petty grievances. “The global warming hoax, it just never ends,” he said. He mocked the concept of sea levels rising, disputing widely held science. “To which I say, great, we have more waterfront property,” he said.
“There was a big thing about global cooling — what will be next?” he said. Trump said he was more concerned about “nuclear warming” than global warming.
He bragged about his crowds, inflating numbers at recent rallies, and mocked Biden for observing social distancing during the 2020 campaign. “He’d have eight circles and he’d have to get the media to fill them,” he said, describing the distanced seats Biden’s team would put out at rallies, with circles around them.
Trump called George Conway, the husband of Kellyanne Conway and a fierce critic of the former president’s, a “stupid son of a b----” and questioned why she married him, even as he extensively praised her. He mocked several of his former aides, including John Bolton, who he said only loved going to war. And he labeled Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who led the congressional impeachment probes against him, a “watermelon head … because his head is shaped like a watermelon.”