Former President Trump will be returning to a very different Washington, D.C., than the one he left when he gives the keynote speech at an America First Policy Institute (AFPI) summit on Tuesday.
As The Hill's Brett Samuels writes, Trump's final weeks in the District were set against the backdrop of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and sought to stop lawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence from certifying the 2020 elections — and its aftermath.
Days after the attack, some of his closest allies at the time like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) name-checked the former president for his responsibility related to the Capitol riot and Trump left D.C. before President Biden's inauguration.
But 18 months later, he will be back in Washington delivering remarks in front of a Trump-friendly audience of former administration officials, and Republican lawmakers and others amid growing anticipation of a potential 2024 presidential announcement.
The president of the think tank, Brooke Rollins, told The Associated Press the speech would be "very much like a State of the Union 5.0."
"His remarks will highlight the policy failures of Democrats, while laying out an America First vision for public safety that will surely be a defining issue during the midterms and beyond," Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesperson, also told the AP.
A lot has changed for Trump since the time last time he was in the nation's capital, including fragmentation of his relationship with Republicans like Pence. It was the tale of two Republican Parties last Friday when both men stumped for Republican primary opponents in Arizona's gubernatorial race.
There's growing speculation that Pence will mount a presidential bid in 2024 as he and others like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) wade into high-profile races or make appearances in early presidential primary states.
Trump himself has been keeping busy holding a number of campaign rallies in recent months for endorsed candidates in states like Illinois, Nevada and Alaska. But while the former president gets ready to make his next speech later this afternoon, not all Republicans think it's in his best interest to give the keynote address at the AFPI summit.
"Yes, it is important for President Trump to have a well-credentialed stable of policy experts capable of both building a 2024 platform and finding solid MAGA talent to populate a new Trump Administration. But the AFPI Trojan Horse—whose leadership is now bragging about how it will staff Trump's 'shadow cabinet'—is decidedly not that," former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro writes in an op-ed on conservative website American Greatness.
You can watch the speech, which is slated to start at 3 p.m. ET, here.
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