Trump returns to Washington after 2020 election defeat

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Donald Trump returned to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving the White House after a failed attempt to reverse his election loss to Joe Biden.

Trump, increasingly teasing a bid to win back the presidency in 2024, is set to address the America First Policy Institute, an allied-led think tank.

He will appear in a city riven by weeks of hearings held by a Democratic-led House of Representatives committee during the January 6, 2021 riot where Trump supporters stormed Congress, trying to prevent the certification of the election result.

The Republican continues to repeatedly push his lie in speeches that he was robbed of victory in 2020, but America First Policy Institute spokesman Marc Lotter says Trump will look to forward rather than backward.

"It's a political speech he's going to make," he told CNN.

However, Trump is unlikely to stray too far from his typically incendiary mix of right-wing nationalism, anti-immigrant rhetoric and conspiracy theories about the election.

Hearings into the Capitol Riots, which revealed harrowing details of the assault on Congress, as well as the attempt by Trump's political supporters to nullify the election by manipulating the complicated US electoral system, would have hurt Trump.

Biden, who early in his presidency tried to avoid even mentioning Trump's name, launched a blistering campaign on Monday over the Republican's failure to win back his crowd of supporters.

"Brave law enforcement officers were subjected to medieval hell for three hours, dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with the crazed crowd who believed the lies of the defeated president," said Biden told the National Black Organization. Conference of Law Enforcement Officials.

“For three hours, the defeated former President of the United States watched all of this unfold as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the Oval Office,” he said. declared.

- Trump in pole position -

Trump, 76, remains by far the most recognizable name in Republican politics. He is believed to retain an extremely loyal core of supporters, which puts him in pole position should he decide to seek the party's nomination.

Potential rivals gain traction as negative publicity mounts.

All eyes are on the progress of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not declared a presidential run but has growing stature on the right.

And a recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that nearly half of Republican primary voters would vote for any Republican other than Trump.

Last week, the right-wing editorial boards of two Murdoch family-owned newspapers, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, published harsh criticisms of Trump's behavior during the Jan. 6 calamity.< /p>

Trump has shown he is "unworthy" to be president again, the generally friendly Post wrote.

However, Trump and his depiction of an America under attack by leftists continue to be boosted by the hugely popular commentators at Murdoch-owned Fox News.

“Throughout American history, our times are easily among the most difficult and alarming,” wrote the leaders of the pro-Trump think tank, including its former economic adviser Larry Kudlow.

AFP