National Harbor, Maryland, Feb 24 (efe_epa).- The president of the United States said in a speech Friday to conservative activists that they finally have a president who will defend their interests.
“Now you finally have a president, finally,” Donald Trump said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “It took you a long time.”
During the speech, Trump reiterated some of his campaign promises and also continued his battle with mainstream media outlets that are frequently critical of his policies.
The president said he did not have a problem with the media criticizing him but only objected to attacks coming from anonymous sources and what he termed “fake news.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name. Let their name be put out there. Let their name be put out,” Trump said. “They should put the name of the person. You will see stories dry up like you’ve never seen before.”
He also said major media outlets, which he once again termed the “enemy of the people,” made up polls during the campaign to give the impression he had no chance.
“Take a look at some of these polls. That were so bad, so inaccurate. And what that does is it creates a false narrative. It creates this narrative that it’s just like we’re not going to win,” he added.
Turning to common themes expressed while on the campaign trail, the president said a wall spanning the US-Mexico border would be built and completed ahead of schedule and blasted spending by the US in recent years in the Middle
East, saying it could have been spent on American infrastructure.
“The Middle East is in … much worse shape than it was 15 years ago. If our presidents would have gone to the beach for 15 years, we would be in much better shape than we are right now,” Trump said, “We could have rebuilt our country three times with that money.”
Trump also continued his criticisms of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law, saying it is unviable and would be fixed to make it much better and much less expensive.
“From a purely political standpoint, the single best thing we can do is nothing. Let (Obamacare) implode completely.
It’s already imploding. You see the carriers are all leaving. It’s a disaster,” Trump said. “But it’s not the right thing to do for the American people. It’s not the right thing to do.”
Trump also vowed to reduce regulations that he said were harming the US economy, which has grown around 2 percent on average over the past decade.
The Trump administration, which says it is aiming to achieve sustained annual growth rates of 3 percent or more, said 75 percent of the regulations were unnecessary, although he also promised that rules that are needed protect the environment and ensure the safety of workers and the American people would remain in place.
The president also pledged big changes in the area of tax reform.
“We are going to massively lower taxes on the middle class, reduce taxes on American business, and make our tax code more simple and much more fair for everyone … In anticipation of these and other changes, jobs are already starting to pour back into our country,” Trump said.
“Ford and Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Intel, and so many others are now, because of the election result, making major investments in the United States, expanding production and hiring more workers.”
Trump said his administration would rebuild the military as part of a philosophy based on peace through strength and that the US and its allies would eradicate the Islamic State terror organization.
The president concluded by saying national security begins with border security and vowing to ensure that foreign terrorists have no chance to strike American citizens.
“We have to be smart. We can’t let it happen to us. So let me state this as clearly as I can: We are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump said.