
Donald Trump took a new shot at the 'fake news' media on Friday, bashing CNN as 'the Clinton News Network' and hammering reporters for using anonymous sources in critical news articles.

'They shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name. Let their name be put out there,' he urged at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, D.C.

'"A source says that Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible human being," he mocked, reading an imaginary story.

'Let 'em say it to my face!'

Trump said some reporters are 'great' and 'talented,' but declared that 'we are fighting the fake news. It's fake! Phony! Fake!'

The president drew criticism for saying this week that some in the press are enemies of ordinary Americans. He doubled down on Friday.

Victory lap: Trump used his CPAC speech to attack the 'fake news media' and hail 'our victory'

Trump entered to a standing ovation from an audience some of whom had stood in line from before dawn to get in

A wild crowd in the thousands packed into a hotel ballroom on Friday to hear Trump

Trump doubled down on saying some in the news media are 'the enemy of the people' – but insisted he was only talking about purveyors of 'fake news'

'A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people,' he insisted Friday.

But in the resulting media coverage, he said, 'the dishonest media did not explain that I called the "fake" news the enemy of the people, the "fake news." They dropped off the word fake.'

'And all of the sudden the story became, "the 'media' is the enemy." They take the word "fake" out. So I'm saying, "Oh no, this is not good".'

'That's the way they are,' he said.

And the First Amendment, typically the bulwark of reporters, 'gives me the right to criticize fake news,' he said.

'It doesn't represent the people. It never will represent the people.'

Trump entered to a standing ovation from an audience that had stood in line from before dawn to get in.

He reiterated his pledge on Friday to 'repeal and replace' the Obamacare law, and insisted that his plan to 'begin the construction of a great, great border wall' between the U.S. and Mexico is moving forward.

'It's going to start soon. Way ahead of schedule. Way, way, way ahead of schedule,' he boasted.

Cell phones and thumbs-up greeted the president as thousands clamored to capture the moment he walked onstage

Reception: Trump was cheered throughout his speech, with his attacks on the 'fake news media' gaining applause

On their feet: Trump walked on to a sea of Republican supporters clapping, cheering, and taking photographs

Stopping illegal immigration, Trump said, will allow the U.S. to 'save countless tax dollars' spent on government benefits and programs used by people in the country illegally.

TRUMP'S PUNCH-LIST The president rattled off a long list of policy priorities on Friday, including hot-button issues that drove his upstart campaign: Media bias

Gun-owners' rights

Trade deals

U.S.-Mexico border wall

Illegal immigration

Narcotics trafficking

Infrastructure rebuilding

Repealing Obamacare

Middle East peace

The national debt

Special-interest lobbying

Welfare reform

U.S. flag desecration

Respect for law enforcement

Changes in the tax system

Military rebuilding

Terrorism in Europe

Keystone and DAPL pipelines

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'The dollars that we're losing are beyond anything that you can imagine,' he said.

And criminal aliens who are inside the United States, he vowed, will be ejected as his administration starts 'throwing them the hell out of our country. And we will not let them back in.'

The president's lengthy speech drew on one campaign theme after another.

'One by one, we're checking off the promises we made to the American people. A lot of promises. And we will not stop until the job is done,' he pledged.

Trump hit all the policy highlights that drove enthusiasm in his upstart candidacy, including media bias, trade, immigration, Middle Eastern terrorism, the national debt, welfare reform and health care for military veterans.

Missing was a firm position on abortion – which Vice President Mike Pence touched on Thursday night. He also had nothing to say about a debate raging over the rights of transgender Americans.

And Trump made no mention of his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, whose confirmation hearing is four weeks away.

Trump's wild welcome at CPAC stood in stark contrast to his reception six years ago when he addressed the gathering for the first time, amid a Tea Party push that had retaken Congress for the GOP three months earlier.

With the 'money, money, money, money' chorus of his reality TV show's theme song blasting, Trump drew laughs and boos in 2011.

Conservatives, it seemed, saw Trump as a squishy liberal – a former Democrat in the lion's den of the GOP's most cantankerous gathering.

White House senior strategist Steve Bannon said Thursday that Trump 'understands, at CPAC there are many, many, many voices. This is the room where he got his launch.'

Bannon said Breitbart News, which he led before joining Trump's team last summer, and other conservative outlets first took note of the brash billionaire at his CPAC debut. And that's where Trump first began understanding the conservatives who years later would help him win the presidency.

Even the back of the ballroom – behind the press section – was stacked with standing-room onlookers

CPAC is held each year at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel in Maryland, a short drive from Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump first spoke to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2011, as the 'money, money, money, money' chorus of his 'Apprentice' show's theme song blasted; he was met with laughs and boos

Although Trump returned most years afterward, he was notably absent in 2016.

Instead, he held a campaign rally in Kansas, declaring in his populist style that 'the establishment is against us.'

ACU chairman Matt Schlapp said the presidential candidates were asked to participate in a question-and-answer session, but Trump wanted to make a speech.

He did show up in 2015, however, a few months before he announced his candidacy.

'I am really inclined. I want to do it so badly,' Trump said about the likelihood he'd run. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were the top two choices in that year's straw poll.

In 2013 Trump warned the CPAC crowd that the GOP risked a 'suicide mission' with the 'Gang of Eight' legislation that would have put 11 million illegal immigrants on a pathway to citizenship.

That bill failed in the House of Representatives as tea partiers pushed back.

Now, CPAC is largely the Trump show – 'TPAC,' White House counselor Kellyanne Conway called it. She, Bannon and other administration officials spoke Thursday, and Vice President Mike Pence gave the evening's keynote address.

White House senior strategist Steve Bannon, left, said Thursday that Trump 'understands, at CPAC there are many, many, many voices. This is the room where he got his launch'

Schlapp said Trump would be the first president to address the group during his first year in office since Ronald Reagan in 1981. He called that a 'huge sign of respect.'

In the CPAC exhibit hall, vendors did a brisk business Thursday with 'Make America Great Again' hats and shirts, along with copies of Trump's book 'The Art of the Deal.'

In a nearby hallway, a man walked a service dog wearing a sweater reading 'Make dogs great again.'

Trump's first speech to CPAC bore little resemblance to the mega-rallies that were the hallmark of his presidential campaign, although many of the themes were the same.

He presaged the slogan that would become his 2016 presidential campaign catch-phrase. 'Our country will be great again,' Trump said then.

He trademarked that phrase in 2012, just after Mitt Romney lost to Obama.

Vice President Mike Pence delivered Thursday night's CPAC keynote speech, a crowd warmup for Trump's Friday morning barnburner

The president told the skeptical 2010 crowd: 'I have a reputation for telling it like it is. I'm known for my candor.'

He seemed to back that up later.

Near the end of the speech he told the skeptical crowd that he was only thinking about running because he didn't like any of the potential candidates - prompting shouts of 'Ron Paul' to break out.

A Texas congressman at the time, Paul was a fan favorite of CPAC and won its straw poll that year.

Trump looked amused and shook his head. 'By the way, Ron Paul cannot get elected, I'm sorry.' he said. Loud boos erupted as Trump reiterated, 'Zero chance of getting elected.'

An angry audience member shouted: 'You have zero chance of getting elected!'