Politics

Trump warns CPAC crowd of dangers if Democrats take power

President Trump told a raucous crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that if Democrats take power in Congress in the midterm elections, they “will take away your Second Amendment.”

“Remember that they will take away those massive tax cuts and they will take away your Second Amendment,” Trump said told the staunch conservatives.

He added: “By the way, if you only had to choose one, the Second Amendment, tax cuts?”

The audience cheered louder for the Second Amendment — just days after the deadly shooting at a Florida school where 17 people were gunned down.

“Historically, if you win the presidency, you don’t do well two years later. And you know what, we can’t let that happen,” he said, telling the crowd that “you can’t get complacent.”

“People get complacent. It is a natural instinct. You just won, and now you’re happy and you’re complacent,” he said. “Don’t be complacent. Don’t be complacent. If they get in, they will repeal your tax cuts, they will put judges in that you wouldn’t believe, they’ll take away your Second Amendment, which we will never allow to happen, they’ll take away your Second Amendment.”

In his freewheeling address, Trump asked if the audience wouldn’t “mind if I go off script a bit because it’s sort of boring” and was met with more cheers.

He further stoked the crowd by bringing up Hillary Clinton as he touted his work in his first year in office.

“Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” they chanted, echoing similar refrains from the 2016 campaign trail.

One man in the crowd yelled: “You said you would!”

Trump also cited a few of his international accomplishments, including announcing that he would move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and pulling out of the Paris climate accord.

He then returned to his signature pledge to erect a “great wall” along the border with Mexico — eliciting chants of “Build that wall! Build that wall!”

The president said a strong nation must have strong borders.

“We celebrate our history and our heroes and we believe young Americans should be taught to love their country, and to respect its traditions. You’re getting the wall. Don’t worry,” Trump said.

“I had a couple of these characters in the back say, ‘Oh, he really doesn’t want the wall. He just used that for campaigning.’ … You know, I say every time I hear that, the wall gets 10 feet higher, you know that. Every single time. OK, now we’re going to have the wall.”

Trump also veered into religion, saying the US is a nation that worships God as he remembered the late Rev. Billy Graham.

“Our nation’s motto is ‘In God We Trust.’ This week, our nation lost an incredible leader who devoted his life to helping us understand what those words really mean. He was a leader, a great man,” Trump said.