Trump hugs Old Glory, blasts Biden at CPAC: ‘You’re fired!’

Former president Donald Trump embraced the American flag in his trademark bear hug at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. Saturday, in a speech that ignored his GOP primary rival, Nikki Haley, as he pivoted toward his coming general-election rematch with President Biden.

“Remember ‘The Apprentice’?” Trump asked, recalling his hit TV show.

“Crooked Joe Biden — you’re fired! Get the hell out of here,” he said to cheers.

“Our country is being destroyed and the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me,” Trump told the crowd of about 1,500 revved-up Republicans who interrupted him periodically with chants of “We want Trump!”

“If crooked Joe Biden and his thugs win in 2024, the worst is yet to come,” Trump warned.

“He’s the crookedest, most incompetent president in the history of our country,” he said. “Crooked Joe and his henchmen have you trapped, and it’s an express train barreling toward servitude and ruin.”

The speech came as South Carolina Republicans voted in their state’s GOP primary — a race that surveys indicated would be another commanding victory for the former president.

Trump, who has swept the first four contests of the GOP presidential race, leads Haley, his former UN ambassador, by an overwhelming 59 points among Republicans nationally, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average — and has maintained a narrow but consistent national lead over Biden since October.

Trump told supporters in a series of emails Saturday that he planned to shift his focus away from the GOP battle and toward the general election — proclaiming, “Trump was right about everything.”