It’s been over a month since Donald Trump made a public appearance, though he hasn’t been entirely AWOL: He called in to some conservative TV shows and dashed off a blog-like screed in which he mostly tore into Mitch McConnell. But on Sunday he made his triumphant IRL comeback, appearing as the keynote speaker at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference. Did he show off a new tone? Did he show off a new respect for the truth? Was he at least humbled by the failed MAGA coup that resulted in five deaths? Of course not! If anything all he did was give a Greatest Hits performance.
There was a lot of lies and fabrications and embellishments, enough to keep CNN fact checker Daniel Dale busier than he’s been in over a month. But his biggest lie was what has been dubbed “The Big Lie”: that the 2020 election was stolen from him, or at least “illegal,” or something.
The Big Lie came up a number of times, at fairly regular intervals, including when he repeatedly teased a run in 2024. He first brought it up in the first 15 minutes of what turned into a 90-minute epic, telling the crowd, “Who knows? I may even decide to beat [Democrats] for a third time.”
"I may even decide to beat [Democrats] for a third time" — Trump pushes the big lie and gets a standing ovation pic.twitter.com/Lu5umfHHN1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 28, 2021
No one was shocked that Trump is still pushing the Big Lie, despite spending two months filling courts with frivolous lawsuits. But some still tried to remind him that he lost it by over seven million votes.
"Who knows, I may even try to beat them a third time," says the guy who lost the last election.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) February 28, 2021
Others thought he was simply bad at math.
trump just said "I might just decide to beat them for a third time." So, still failing at math, reality, and honesty.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) February 28, 2021
Former Pres Trump is continuing to lie about the 2020 election and is claiming again today that he won even though he lost to President Biden.
Hinting about running in 2024, Trump said: “Who knows, who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time.”
He only won once.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) February 28, 2021
Others pointed out that number of times he won the popular vote.
Fun fact: Trump has won the Electoral College once, and the popular vote zero times. https://t.co/WgrZV8SgBr
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) February 28, 2021
People were not shocked that the bloody Capitol riot didn’t faze Trump one bit.
Trump, by no means chastened by the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, pushing the lie at CPAC that he won the election. “Actually as you know they just lost the White House … I might even decide to beat them for a third time,” he says to roaring applause
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 28, 2021
This is the lie that caused an insurrection on January 6th. Trump continues to repeat it on the platform CPAC gave him, to a standing ovation. It’s disgusting. https://t.co/oN0WK7c5YI
— Danielle Butcher Franz (@DanielleBFranz) February 28, 2021
Maybe what he meant is that he’ll simply lose again.
I’d be cool with Trump running again if he “beats” them like he did in 2020 https://t.co/f5NSeT0czl
— Vaush 🇵🇸 (@VaushV) February 28, 2021
But hey, Trump — who was acquitted by the Senate, meaning he can still run for public office, and can still flood the GOP with Marjorie Taylor Green clones — is the Republican Party’s problem now.
we gave these seditious dingdongs the chance to bar him from public office and they balked, so now they get to spend the next few years competing against him for donations https://t.co/RwrBSiB1bQ
— shauna (@goldengateblond) February 28, 2021