Trump’s 2024 Soft Launch
A grisly speech about “law and order” pivots to GOP culture-war issues.
The idea of a Donald Trump–oriented think tank is inherently absurd. Whatever your views on the former president, there’s no question that wonkish attention to policy was never the point or the focus of his administration—which might explain the strangeness of his speech today at the America First Agenda Summit, where a blood-soaked philippic on crime became a cringey laugh-fest of transphobic jokes.
The D.C. conference is hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit created by former members of his administration to promote his policy ideas. In other words, one would imagine that this would be among the friendliest audiences Trump could encounter.
