Former president Donald Trump gave his strongest indication yet that he intends to run in 2024 during a nearly 90-minute speech to supporters on Saturday night that also included continued praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did it twice, and we\u2019ll do it again,\u201d Trump told a crowd at the\u00a0Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando<\/a>, falsely claiming again that he won the 2020 election. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be doing it again a third time.<\/p>\n This is the latest in a string of thinly veiled hints about his political plans, but Trump has stopped short of officially declaring his candidacy, which would trigger more stringent requirements for how he raises, spends and reports funds.<\/p>\n The former president condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine without denigrating Putin directly, saying it\u2019s \u201cappalling and it\u2019s an outrage and an atrocity that should never have been allowed to occur.\u201d Trump mocked President Biden and NATO allies for\u00a0punishing Russia with sanctions<\/a>, saying Putin was \u201cplaying Biden like a drum.\u201d He bragged that Putin did not invade any countries during his term and said this invasion would never have happened \u201cif our election was not rigged\u201d \u2014 a reference to his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe understood me and he understood that I didn\u2019t play games,\u201d Trump said of the Russian president. \u201cSomeday I\u2019ll tell you exactly what we talked about, and we talked about it, he did have an affinity, there\u2019s no question about it, for Ukraine. \u2026 I said, \u2018Better not let it happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has long\u00a0spoken admiringly of Putin<\/a>, and, this past week, he complimented the Russian leader during\u00a0a conservative talk radio interview<\/a>, saying it was \u201csmart\u201d to send \u201cthe strongest peace force I\u2019ve ever seen\u201d to the Ukraine border.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is genius,\u201d Trump said in that interview. \u201cPutin declares a big portion of the Ukraine \u2014 of Ukraine \u2014 Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that\u2019s wonderful. \u2026 He used the word \u2018independent\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019re going to go out and we\u2019re going to go in and we\u2019re going to help keep peace.\u2019 You\u2019ve got to say that\u2019s pretty savvy.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump defended labeling Putin as \u201csmart\u201d during his Saturday night speech.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is not that Putin is smart \u2014 which, of course he\u2019s smart \u2014 but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb,\u201d Trump said to applause. \u201cDumb. So dumb.\u201d<\/p>\n The hotel ballroom where the conference was held was full for the first time all weekend, and the crowd cheered when the former president alluded to running again, cuing chants of \u201cfour more years.\u201d When Trump said America had \u201clost its self confidence\u201d under Biden, a man in the crowd started a chant of \u201cLet\u2019s go, Brandon<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a phrase that is code for a profane expression against Biden.<\/p>\n Talk of a third Trump candidacy was everywhere at CPAC, with attendees sporting \u201cTrump 2024\u201d hats and vendors selling flags for a 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n A MAGA gala, a far-right rally, and a plea for Jan. 6 justice: Trio of summits tests GOP\u2019s future<\/a><\/p>\n Before Trump took the stage, speaker after speaker urged the ex-president to run and predicted a victory over any Democrat. T.W. Shannon, a former Oklahoma state legislator and potential U.S. Senate candidate, said that Trump had taught conservatives hard lessons that would \u201cprepare us for the next time that he\u2019s president.\u201d<\/p>\n Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host, compared Trump to Winston Churchill and said that conservatives would \u201cMake America great again, again\u201d in 2024.\u00a0Jack Posobiec<\/a>, a promoter of the\u00a0\u201cPizzagate\u201d<\/a>\u00a0false conspiracy theory who works with the conservative youth group\u00a0Turning Point USA<\/a>, said that any 2024 Democratic nominee would be a \u201csacrificial lamb\u201d in the year of a Trump comeback.<\/p>\n The Federal Election Commission earlier this month faced a complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, that seeks to compel the commission to declare Trump a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. The complainant, John Anthony Castro, is a declared candidate for the Republican nomination and argues that he is suffering \u201ccompetitive injury in the form of a diminution of votes and fundraising.\u201d<\/p>\n Brett Kappel of law firm Harmon Curran, an expert on campaign finance laws, said he doesn\u2019t think the comments Saturday night are \u201cenough for Trump to legally become a candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe has to make an unambiguous definitive statement,\u201d Kappel said.<\/p>\n The reaction in the ballroom was more muted when Trump insisted that Putin and Russia were paying \u201cno price\u201d for the invasion, with faint applause when he suggested that sanctions wouldn\u2019t stop Russia from taking control of Ukraine. There were cheers when Trump, like other people who\u2019d spoken at the conference, praised the Ukrainians and their president,\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>.<\/p>\n