WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump made one of his strongest pitches Friday to unite the Republican Party and the conservative movement behind a nationalist, anti-globalist ideology that until recently would have been unthinkable for many Republicans.
"There is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency or a global flag," Trump said to great applause from thousands of conservatives. "I'm not representing the globe. I'm representing your country."
He echoed ideas he has espoused in the past _ denouncing trade deals as the antithesis of "economic freedom," warning that the great cities of Europe have been ruined by mass immigration, denouncing intervention in the Middle East by both parties.
But while many of the words were familiar, the venue and the passion made Friday's speech remarkable.
The comments came at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, just outside of Washington, the most prominent gathering of right-leaning groups and activists in the country. Such a speech would have been shocking from a conservative, much less the president, at almost any other time in the conference's history.
Trump has been popular at CPAC in the past. He credits a speech there with launching his political career. But he snubbed last year's event amid a heated primary in which many conservatives rejected his tone and the direction he was trying to move the GOP.
"I would have come last year, but I was worried that I would be at that time too controversial," Trump said in his speech, which lasted nearly an hour.
Trump, the first president since Ronald Reagan to address the group during his first year in office, made clear that he is moving those once controversial ideas to the movement's center.
In addition to his usual critiques of the media and frequent references to his electoral success, Trump spoke directly of his ambition for reshaping the Republican Party to attract blue-collar voters, "the forgotten men and women" who helped propel his electoral victory.
"I'm here today to tell you what this movement means for the future of the Republican Party and for the future of America," Trump said. "The core conviction of our movement is that we are a nation that (must) put and will put its own citizens first."
Later, he added that "the GOP will be from now on also the party of the American worker."
While Trump tried to unite conservatives, the speech made little effort to bridge the country's larger political divide. For example, Trump dismissed people who have shown up at town halls around the country to protest reversal of Obamacare.
"They're not you," he said. "They're the side that lost."
