Asked in a Fox News interview if he regretted how he handled the Capitol riots, Donald Trump blamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi for poor security and then boasted about the size of the crowd that was there to support him.

Said Trump: “The press doesn’t like to talk about it, but the real number was much, much bigger… It was tremendous numbers of people, not the Capitol, I’m talking about the rally itself, and it was a lovefest, it was a beautiful thing.”

Just Security is tracking every pending criminal and civil case against Donald Trump.

Aides tell the Associated Press that Donald Trump will use his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference to blast President Joe Biden and try to cement his status as the party’s undisputed leader going forward despite his loss in November.

Trump will say, according to released excerpts: “I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over. We are gathered this afternoon to talk about the future — the future of our movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country.”

According to USA Today, Trump will say Biden has had “the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.”

“White House officials have said neither they nor Biden plan to comment much on Trump’s speech because they expect to be busy working.”

“His presidency was unlike any other, so why would we expect his post-presidency to be like any other?”

— James Carville, quoted by the New York Times, on Donald Trump.

Politico: “Traditionally, state legislators and political mapmakers rely heavily on recent election results for clues about how communities will vote in the future — baselines they use to gerrymander advantageous districts for their party. But the whiplash in Trump-era elections make drawing conclusions from those results more complicated this year.”

“And both parties’ strategists know that if they make bad bets, drawing districts based on elections that were driven more by Trump’s singular personality than by trends that will persist until 2030, those mistakes could swing control of the House against them over the next decade.”

Playbook: “Three people close to Trump tell me that he’s stewing anew over Kevin McCarthy. It’s become so frequent that his advisers think the House minority leader may be in for a public reprimand. That’s even after the powwow at Mar-a-Lago where McCarthy tried to patch things up after he denounced Trump for the violence on Jan. 6.”

“The reason for Trump’s displeasure: an emboldened Cheney.”

“Each time Cheney criticizes Trump from her leadership post as the No. 3 House Republican, he’s reminded that it was McCarthy who pleaded with his conference to keep her on as chair — despite her vote to impeach Trump.”

Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, told the CPAC crowd that former President Donald Trump “from his desk as Mar-a-Lago will accomplish more for America in the next four years than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could ever dream of.”

Jonathan Chait: “Donald Trump has refused to follow the script. He has moved into a role of opposition leader and president in exile, a sort of hybrid between a parliamentary system (where a defeated prime minister might often slide immediately into opposition leadership) and banana republic, where a deposed strongman flees the country with a Swiss bank account and a retinue of goons…”

“To the outside world, it seems strange that Republicans would not only tolerate this but in many cases actively encourage it. Trump’s appeal to his party was rooted in his reality-television-corroborated claim to be a lifelong winner. Come to Trump’s side, he promised incessantly, and you will win so much you’ll get tired of it. What value does he still have now? When previous defeated presidents were discarded, why cling to the one whose value proposition was based on never being a loser?”

“An important part of the answer is that, seen through Republican eyes, Trump didn’t lose at all.”

“We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight. We’ve done a good job in the U.S.”

— Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, on CNBC, commenting on the coronavirus pandemic one year ago.

“President Donald Trump told political advisers Thursday that he’s chosen longtime ally Corey Lewandowski to run a yet-to-be-formed super PAC as part of his expanding post-presidential political apparatus,” Politico reports.

“People familiar with the meeting — which touched on a wide array of topics related to Trump’s political activities and the organizations supporting them — noted that the full plans for Trump’s operation are not finalized and they were uncertain about some details.”

“Trump has already established a leadership PAC, Save America, that has raised tens of millions of dollars. But unlike leadership PACs, which are limited in terms of how much money they can raise from individual donors, super PACs are able to raise and spend unlimited amounts.”

Karl Rove: “One approach would be to devote the speech to his anger and grievances over losing the election. He could complain it was stolen and brag about winning more than 74 million votes. He could claim credit for every GOP victory, from flipping House seats to adding state legislative chambers, while blaming others—notably Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—for every GOP failure, including losing the Senate…”

“There’s a second approach Mr. Trump could take Sunday. He could emphasize his agenda and contrast it with Mr. Biden’s policies starting with the new administration’s immigration proposal. He could share an expanded vision of where he would be taking America if he were still in the Oval Office, something he failed to do during his re-election campaign. He could remind people of his pre-Covid economic achievements. He could finally express compassion about those who died or suffered from Covid and declare his pride in Operation Warp Speed…”

“Leaders who come out of the wilderness after defeat do so by changing their approach and re-creating themselves. It’s unclear whether Mr. Trump has the ability to change, especially after a defeat that left him embittered and isolated. What are the odds Mr. Trump takes the more constructive second tack?”

Associated Press: Conservative gathering to feature Trump’s false fraud claims.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has now obtained former President Donald Trump’s tax returns and related records, CNN reports.

The records include “millions of pages of documents.”

“Just five years ago, Donald Trump pulled out of speaking at the annual CPAC conference,” First Read notes.

“That decision came during the throes of the 2016 GOP nominating contest, when fellow Republicans were questioning Trump’s conservative credentials and when there was talk about a possible walk-out to protest Trump’s scheduled speech.”

“Now? Not only is Trump the featured Sunday speaker at this year’s upcoming CPAC conference in Orlando — coming after his defeat, after the GOP lost the Senate and after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — he’s reshaped CPAC and the conservative movement in his image.”

Daily Beast: “Once he and his remaining advisers start vetting conservative candidates or a possible slate of MAGA primary challengers in earnest, Trump has told several people he prefers to back candidates who haven’t ever conceded he lost the 2020 election.”

“If a potential candidate seeking Trump’s support has a proven record of saying Trump lost and that the months-long push to overturn the 2020 election was a mistake, that could be a nonstarter, the former president has said in recent weeks.”

CNN: “He typically spends mornings on his nearby golf course, making and taking calls from a golf cart that doubles as his mobile, and self-driven, office. The multiple trips to the links in the last few weeks have served to accomplish a long-promised goal, says someone who spent time with him recently: Donald Trump claims he has increased his drive by 20 yards, a new favorite brag to golfing partners, or anyone who will listen.”

“Eighteen holes later, he leaves his Trump International Golf Club and returns to Mar-a-Lago, where he retreats within his quarters to his own private living space, separate from that of his wife, and ponders two main questions: Who is with him? And who is against him?”

Axios: Trump’s blunt weapon: State GOP leaders.

Donald Trump Jr. was deposed as part of the Washington, DC, attorney general’s lawsuit alleging the misuse of Trump inaugural funds, CNN reports.