In a speech that went past two hours at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC 2019), President Trump invited Hayden Williams—the conservative activist who was assaulted last month at the University of California in Berkeley—on stage and said he will soon sign an executive order protecting free speech on college campuses.
“Today, I am proud to announce that I will be very soon signing an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research funds,” he announced to enthusiastic applause.
“If they want our dollars and we give it to them by the billions, they’ve got to allow people like Hayden and many other great young people and old people to speak. Free speech,” said Trump. “And if they don’t it will be very costly.”
Trump encouraged Williams’s attorney to sue UC Berkeley.
“He will be a wealthy man,” Trump said while sending Williams off the stage.
According to the Conservative Political Action, 19,252 people attended the conference with 2,604 students among them.
Trump hugged the American flag as he arrived to speak at CPAC 2019, in Oxon Hill, Md., on Saturday, March 2.
He went through a wide range of topics, from Robert Mueller’s investigation, economic success, border wall, trade negotiation with China, and freedom of speech.
Trump also took a humorous jab at the Democrats’ Green New Deal, a policy proposal floated by some of the more liberal Democrats in Congress and backed to varying degrees by several of the party’s 2020 presidential candidates.
“I think the New Green Deal or whatever the hell they call it — the Green New Deal — I encourage it,” Trump said with a smirk.
“I think it’s really something that they should promote. They should work hard on it. ... No planes, no energy. When the wind stops blowing that’s the end of your electric. Let’s hurry up. Darling, is the wind blowing today? I'd like to watch television, darling.”
With special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation seemingly approaching its end, Trump spoke of the “collusion delusion” and lashed out at newly empowered House Democrats who plan to open new inquires involving him.
“This phony thing,” Trump said of the Russia probe, “looks like it’s dying so they don’t have anything with Russia there, no collusion. So now they go in and morph into ‘Let’s inspect every deal he’s ever done. We’re going to go into his finances. We’re going to check his deals. We’re going to check’ — these people are sick.”
In a move echoing other recent talks, Trump again denounced the socialist agenda of Democratic party members during his speech.
“America will never be a socialist country,” he said.
