Trump kisses and hugs flag and does strange swaying to music ahead of CPAC speech

Before beginning his grievance-filled speech, Trump appeared to sway to the music as he waited for the song to end and approached the podium

Donald Trump did one of his patented long entrances ahead of his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), standing and taking in the applause from the adoring crowd to the tune of God Bless the USA.

But he couldn’t restrain himself from doing what he has done many times before: grabbing the American flag and acting like he was kissing it.

Before beginning his grievance-filled speech, Mr Trump appeared to sway to the music and almost begin to dance as he waited for the song to end before he approached the podium.

After thanking a number of people in the audience, but not mentioning former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss who was sitting in the crowd, Mr Trump began his speech more than an hour behind schedule by saying: “Four years ago, I told you that if crooked Joe Biden got to the White House, our borders would be abolished, our middle class would be decimated, and our communities would be plagued by bloodshed chaos and violent crime. We were right about everything.”

While illegal border crossings have increased under President Joe Biden, congressional Republicans recently shot down bipartisan legislation that would have added further border funding. Following lengthy negotiations across the parties, Mr Trump only needed a few words to kill the legislation.

Trump stood still after entering the hall before eventually beginning to sway gently to the music (REUTERS)

“Believe me when I offer you another warning and we've been right about so much, just about everything. “If crooked Joe Biden and his thugs win in 2024, the worst is yet to come,” he said at the Gaylord National conference centre in National Harbor, Maryland just outside of Washington, DC on Saturday.

“Our country will ... sink to levels that were unimaginable ... With four more years of Biden, the hordes of illegal aliens stampeding across our borders will exceed 40 to 50 million people. Medicare social security, health care and public education will buckle and collapse ... our economy will be starved of energy by crooked Joe’s vindictive, green new scam,” he added.

In 2022, illegal border crossings hit an all-time high at 2.2 million, according to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics. Mr Biden initially kept in place a Trump pandemic policy – Title 42 – allowing the authorities to quickly expel those crossing the border.