Former US President Donald Trump attacked his rivals for the Republican Party nomination for the 2024 presidential elections, especially Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in front of a supportive audience on Friday in Anaheim during the California Republican Party convention.

The former president said, "I was the one who brought red back to Florida (the Republican color), not him," referring to DeSantis. Recalling the support he provided to him in 2018 in his campaign to obtain the position of governor of Florida, Trump asserted, “Without me, he would be dead.”

According to a recent NBC News poll, Trump has a landslide lead in the Republican primary with 59% voting intentions compared to 16% for DeSantis, his closest competitor.

In Anaheim, Trump also called Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, a "loser."

The former president did not participate on Wednesday in the second debate for Republican candidates organized in California, preferring to campaign among auto industry workers in Michigan (northeast of the country).

Trump (77 years old) once again mocked the physical appearance of Joe Biden, whom he hopes to replace in the White House, telling his audience that the 80-year-old Democratic president “cannot even get off a podium.”

Trump has been criminally charged in four cases ranging from his handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency to his alleged attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and has again presented himself as a victim of justice he views as being in the hands of Democrats.

He promised that if he returned to power, he would order a comprehensive reform of the Ministry of Justice to “investigate every extremist prosecutor in America.”

The former president also spoke about immigration, saying he wanted to "close the border" with Mexico and "launch the largest deportation operation in the country's history."

He did not forget to address issues of concern to the state of California, from the water wars linked to the drought, to managing the homeless issue, to resuming the exploitation of oil that was abandoned due to the priority given to renewable energies.

Dozens of his supporters waved the American flag and banners bearing his name for the 2024 elections.

Among them, some appeared to be challenging his party, in California, which is considered very liberal and regularly votes Democratic.

Karen Anthopoulos said indignantly, "It is unfortunate that the mainstream Republican Party, which is organizing this conference, is not making more efforts to support President Trump."