Former President Donald Trump on Sunday addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas and promised to “defeat” critical race theory.
“With the help of everyone here today, we will defeat the radical left, the socialists, Marxists, and the critical race theorists,” Trump told the audience. “We will secure our borders, we will stop left-wing cancel culture, we will restore free speech and free elections and we will make America great again.”
Critical race theory (CRT) is perhaps at the forefront of America’s culture wars as parents across the country have wrangled with teachers, school boards, and teachers unions over whether it should be taught to public school students. CRT is strongly associated with the “antiracist” movement, “cancel culture,” as well as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” workforce training.
According to Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Criticalrace.org and other critics of the ideology, CRT is an offshoot of the earlier critical theory—a European Marxist school of thought that originated in the early part of the 20th century. Several governors have signed measures in recent weeks that bar the teaching of CRT or similar content to students, with the latest being Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who approved a bill last week that prohibits local governments from teaching it to employees.
“Never forget that the radical left is not the majority in this country,” Trump said. “We’re the majority and it’s not even close.”
The president asserted that the “battle is so much bigger” than policy proposals or Supreme Court rulings, saying the “radical left” has infiltrated or is controlling “centralized institutions” such as bar associations, universities, schools, Hollywood, Big Tech, and large banks. And some of the pressure campaigns waged by Democrats, he said, are “straight out of the communist countries around the world.
Throughout his speech, Trump contrasted the immigration policies of his administration with those of the current administration, accusing President Joe Biden and Democrats of mishandling border security.
“We deported criminal aliens by the thousands … and we built almost 500 miles of the border wall,” the former commander-in-chief remarked. “Now the Biden administration has turned the border into the single greatest disaster in American history.”
