Outspoken business mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump offered a rebuke on Friday of the Romney campaign, American Crossroads, his critics on both sides of the aisle, and in particular the Obama administration.
"We're run by either very foolish or very stupid people," he said during his speech at CPAC. "What's going on in this country is unbelievable. Our country is a total mess, a total and complete mess, and what we need is leadership."
Trump tends to be polarizing, but he was popular here at CPAC. His early-morning speech drew a large crowd -- far larger than remarks at the same time on Thursday -- and he has claimed credit for an increase in ticket sales after his appearance was announced. But conservative commentators have criticized the fact that he was invited when other popular conservatives, such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, were not.
Trump mocked those who have dismissed him, saying his business success proves his importance.
"I'm continually criticized by total lightweights all over the place," he said. "It's unbelieveable. When you see these guys on television, they can't buy a clean shirt, and they're saying 'Donald Trump, he's nothing.'"
He said that Romney should have, like him, touted his business success.
"Republicans and Mitt, and I told him this, didn't talk enough about the things he did, the great things," he said. "They were in the defensive instead of taking that offense."
Trump had harsher words for the Karl Rove-founded super PAC American Crossroads and the failure of the candidates it backed in 2012.
"When you spend $400 million and it's a failure, and you don't have one victory, you know there's something seriously, seriously wrong," he said.
Trump also had some ideas for the country, such as going back to Iraq to take some of its oil to pay for the war.
"When I heard that we were first going to Iraq, some very smart people told me we're actually going for the oil, and I said, 'Alright, I get that, there's nothing else, I get it,'" he said. "We didn't take the oil. And then when I said, we spent $1.5 trillion, we should take that -- you know, they have the second-largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia, so $1.5 trillion is nothing ... we should take it and pay ourselves back."
"What are we thinking? And this is whether it's Obama or [former President George W.] Bush or whoever -- what the hell are we thinking?" he said.
Below, a liveblog of the latest updates from CPAC:
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