Former president Donald Trump was spotted playing golf on Friday at his Palm Beach, Florida club before his speech in prime time on Saturday night at the Conference on Conservative Political Action in Orlando.
The former president wore his trademark Make America Great Again, a white polo shirt and dark trousers – and played golf with several partners, also wearing Trump-branded clothing.
Trump’s speech comes as he is inflamed by the laudatory comments he made this week about Russia Vladimir Putinas the leader organized a deadly attack on Ukraine.
Former President Donald Trump was spotted playing golf at his club in Palm Beach, Florida, Friday before his prime time speech Saturday night at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando
The former president, driving a golf cart, wore his trademark hat “Make America Great Again” with “45” on the side, as he was the 45th president
Former President Donald Trump was out to play golf on Friday at his Palm Beach resort ahead of his CPAC speech Saturday night
The former president looks in the direction of the DailyMail.com camera while playing golf on Friday in Palm Beach, Florida, near his resort of Mar-a-Lago
Former President Donald Trump’s golf partners also wore Trump clothing
The former president called Putin “quite smart” on Wednesday, as the invasion was imminent, following similar comments from Trump after Putin declared two regions of Ukraine “independent” earlier this week.
“If I had been in office, this deadly situation in Ukraine would never have happened!” Trump said in a statement Thursday night.
The White House he replied to Trump – but Republicans, including those on the CPAC stage, danced around the former president’s assessment.
Senator Ted Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, did not mention the Ukrainian crisis at all during his address to the CPAC on Thursday night.
Earlier this week, Cruz praised President Joe Biden’s decision to allow sanctions to continue against Nord Stream 2 pipeline operators – releasing Biden-nominated State Department nominees so they can be confirmed by the Senate.
Cruz later said that Biden’s previous decision to lift sanctions on the Nord Stream project was likely tantamount to handing over Putin. he told CBS on Thursday.
During the same interview, he refused to criticize Trump.
“His rhetoric – with some regularity – I don’t agree,” Cruz said.
In his speech on Friday morning, Senator Marco Rubio admitted that there are differing views on the conflict with the modern Republican Party.
“No matter where you are in this situation between Ukraine and Russia – what we should have done in advance, what we should do now – the only thing I think everyone can agree on is that the people of Ukraine are inspiring the world.” The Florida senator told the crowd.
Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – who has also been criticized for recent praise for Putin – would not ignore his previous statements, but stepped up his rhetoric on Putin’s stage in Orlando.
“We have seen a Russian dictator now terrorize the Ukrainian people because America is not demonstrating the determination we made four years ago,” Pompeo said Friday morning.
Overall, the CPAC was a gathering of Trumpworld, with a number of former White House officials and political allies roaming the halls.
DailyMail.com has spotted former White House spokeswoman Kaylee McEnnany and deputies Hogan Gidley and Judd Deere.
Trump’s original national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was present.
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell was there.
And some of Trump’s chosen candidates were also there – including Max Miller of Ohio, who is fighting to replace retired Republican MP Anthony Gonzalez, a supporter of the impeachment, and Kelly Chibaka, who is facing Republican Sen. Lisa Markowski, who said Trump must be convicted of inciting an uprising.
Murkowski, an incumbent Republican senator, was booed by the crowd when Chibaka’s name dropped her.
MAGA Swag was everywhere.
And the candidates trying to get Trump’s approval supported the so-called “big lie.”
Josh Mandel, who is running for the GOP nomination for a Senate seat, GOP Sen. Rob Portman is leaving, said on stage on Friday that “the liberal media is getting up and the loose Rhino Republicans are getting up, but I want him to I say very clearly and very directly: I believe that this election was stolen by Donald J. Trump.
“You know Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzingers, they’re traitors,” he continued.
As a parrot of what Trump said earlier, Mandel added: “We need to remove the Commission from January 6 and replace it with the Commission from November 3.”
At the CPAC in Orlando this week, the MAGA swag was everywhere