The event, held around Memphis, Tennessee, is a "celebration of faith, family, unalienable rights and God-given American freedoms," according to the group's website.
"Never before have America’s greatest conservative insiders and influencers come together for an event to unify an entire nation of silenced voices," the website adds. "In a time when so many in the media and government are tearing down America and its people, the American Freedom Tour celebrates America and what makes us great."
Speaking to religious conservatives at a sprawling resort near the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Trump criticized the committee’s measures as a “theatrical production of partisan political fiction” and argued he had done nothing wrong.
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“What you’re seeing is a complete and total lie. It’s a complete and total fraud,” he told the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference. He dismissed the harrowing video footage and searing testimony presented by the committee — including first-hand accounts from senior aides and family members — as having been selectively edited. And he downplayed the insurrection as “a simple protest that got out of hand.”
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Trump’s arrival at a place long known as a testing ground for presidential hopefuls comes as he has been actively weighing when he might formally launch another White House campaign. According to people familiar with the talks, the debate centers on whether to make a formal announcement later this summer or fall or, in accordance with tradition, wait until after the November midterm elections.
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While supporters insist he has yet to make a final decision about his plans, Trump for months has been broadcasting his intentions, and continued to tease them Friday.
“One of the most urgent tasks facing the next Republican president — I wonder who that will be,” Trump said at one point, prompting a standing ovation and chants of “USA!”
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“Would anybody like me to run for president?” he asked the crowd, unleashing more cheers.
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Ralph Reed, chair of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said that, for now, “We don’t know whether or not he will run, although certainly given his speech, I think he wanted to let everybody know that that is his plan.”
Trump has spent the past year and a half holding rallies, delivering speeches and using his endorsements to exact revenge and further shape the party in his image. But some supporters say the former president, who has decamped from his Florida Mar-a-Lago club to Bedminster, New Jersey, for the summer, is also growing impatient.
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While he has enjoyed his role as a party kingmaker — with candidates all but pleading for his endorsement and racking up large tabs at fundraisers in his ballrooms — Trump also misses the days when he was actually king, especially as he watches Democratic President Joe Biden struggle with low approval ratings and soaring inflation.
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