Donald Trump, a former president, stated on Saturday that he was prepared to return and address the corruption in Washington, D.C. since he had learned who the good people were during his first term in office.

Trump acknowledged to his audience during a speech at the Turning Point USA’s Action conference in Florida that he hadn’t been particularly wise in selecting the right candidates for positions in his administration in 2016 – but he claimed that his time in the White House had taught him who to pick and who to avoid if he got another chance.

TRUMP: “We are going to put AMERICA FIRST like never before, and FINISH the job that we started.”

“We are going to OBLITERATE the DEEP STATE.”🔥 pic.twitter.com/SAvFwv1MTi

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 16, 2023

“That’s was only the beginning,” Trump said of his first term, adding that he had plans to finish the job he had started when he took office six years earlier.

“When I get back to the Oval Office, I will totally obliterate the Deep State, they will be obliterated,” he said. “And we know all the good ones now, you know, when I went there, I’d only been to Washington 17 times in my life, according to the fake news, and — 17 times, and never stayed there, so I wasn’t a Washington establishment person.”

“I didn’t know the people, I had to rely on people to give me names, and largely, we got great names, you know, we got the tax cut, we did so much, we rebuilt our military … but there are people that I wouldn’t have put there, and I will fire all of these corrupt bureaucrats,” he continued.

“Now, better than maybe anybody else, I know the great ones, I know the smart ones, I know the dumb ones, I know the weak ones, I know the stupid ones — but I know the ones because I know everybody in Washington,” he said. “I got a — I got a PhD in learning about the people of Washington.”

Trump continued by promising to establish a “truth and reconciliation” panel with the responsibility of declassifying and making available to the public any records relating to snooping and censorship.

He ended by pledging to mediate a “deal” that would be equitable to all parties, stating he could assist put an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine before he even assumed office.

After declining to participate in a candidate discussion organized by former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, Trump made his speech the following day.