Among Republican Party elected and operative officials, intense disagreements arise over the future of his party. But no signs of dissent will be visible this weekend, when conservatives meet for an annual conference that has long featured Republican internal debates.
Instead, a theme will rule them all – allegiance to Trump.
The former president plans to use Sunday, the last day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, for his first public speech since he left the White House just over a month ago. Throughout the weekend, loyalty tests will be everywhere – panels spreading Trump’s false allegations of electoral fraud, speeches by Republican candidates who will compete to praise him, and a poll designed to show him as the favorite for the party’s presidential nomination in 2024.
“He’s not done with politics yet,” said Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union and organizer of the annual conference known as CPAC. “Does he run again? This must be determined. But it will change the political environment every day of this cycle. “
The four-day convention, moved this year from the Washington, DC area to Orlando, Florida, to take advantage of COVID’s more flexible restrictions, has always featured more party red meat than detailed political discussions, said Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist.
“The CPAC knows what will resonate with its members, and it has always been wedge issues that set the base against Democrats or, in some cases, other Republicans,” he said.
What makes this year’s meeting stand out is the intense focus on an individual and their complaints. Trump’s relative silence since he left the White House and, almost simultaneously, lost his Twitter platform has raised expectations.
“It’s perfect for Trump,” said Gorman. “It’s his debutante party.”
Schlapp, who has frequent contact with Trump, said the former president was “looking forward to going”. The annual conference was the scene of some memorable speeches from Trump when he was president, including a two-hour epic in 2019, shortly after his failed summit in Hanoi with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
A summary of the conference topic list makes your focus clear:
Protection of elections, parts 1-4 – “Why we must protect elections”; “Why the judges and the media refused to examine the evidence”; “The left pulled the strings, covered up and even admitted”; and “Failed States (Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Oh My!)” – will rival the more traditional conservative tariff, such as attacks on China’s (and California) rising power, denunciations by the technology industry and warnings against plans Democrats to promote low-emission cars, regulate weapons and promote the rights of LGBTQ Americans.
“We chose panels that conservatives care about,” said Schlapp. “If the schedule looks heavy for Trump, it’s because the conservative movement and what Trump did as president converged.”
In all, at least nine sessions will focus on the ex-president’s unhappiness with the 2020 outcome and try to extend his false claims of being the rightful winner.
All of this is in stark contrast to the last time the CPAC met shortly after the inauguration of a Democratic president, said Republican strategist Alex Conant.
In the winter of 2009, after President Obama took office, Rush Limbaugh was the keynote speaker at the conference, urging conservatives to pull themselves together and look to the future, Conant said.
This conference “was memorable because of how it was forward-looking,” he said. “What is impressive is how different this will be. It looks like this will be very backward – a defense of what many voters rejected in the election. “
For Republicans, the emphasis on relitigating 2020 has already proved expensive. As President Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID aid package slowly moves towards approval, with polls showing a quarter or more of Republican voters supporting him, the party has a difficult time mounting an effective attack, in partly because Republican Party elected officials spent much of their time attacking each other.
This week, for example, Republican House leaders called a press conference to criticize the bill. It was largely overshadowed when, in response to a reporter’s question, two of the leaders disagreed over whether Trump should speak at CPAC.
“Yes, it should,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, the Republican leader in the House.
Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), The third member of the leadership, objected.
“It depends on the CPAC,” she said, but added, “I have been clear in my views on President Trump.”
“I don’t believe he should play a role in the future of the party or the country,” she said.
Thursday, in an interview with Fox News, McCarthy criticized Cheney: “The idea that a Republican would join the culture of cancellation is beyond wrong,” he said.
Needless to say, Cheney will not attend CPAC. Neither is Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate who won the CPAC presidential election that year.
At a conference this week sponsored by the New York Times, Romney said, referring to Trump: “I don’t know if he plans to run in 2024 or not, but if he does, I’m sure he would win the nomination. . ”That wouldn’t be his preference, he made it clear.
“I would be supporting someone in the small Republican Party wing that I represent.”
Also not on the CPAC agenda are Trump supporters who have failed to reach their limit of absolute loyalty, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. She clashed with Trump by criticizing him after his supporters broke into the Capitol on January 6.
“I think he lost any political viability he intended to have,” she said in an interview with Politico. “I don’t think it will be in the picture.”
So far, Haley’s prediction looks wrong. Republicans had a “mini Arab Spring” shortly after January 6, with many elected officials openly criticizing Trump for stoking his supporters’ anger before the attack and for not canceling protesters when the violence started, said Charlie Sykes, A prominent conservative radio presenter from Wisconsin became a critic of Trump.
But that quickly disappeared after Republican voters made clear their continued loyalty to the former president, he said.
“You had a feeling that maybe this was the moment when the Republican Party got sober,” said Sykes. “But it didn’t take long.”
The January 6 attack “will not happen much,” predicted former deputy Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who is now a contributor to Fox News and is expected to speak on Friday.
People who broke the law on that “horrible day” are being investigated and “should be prosecuted,” said Chaffetz. But he added, “I don’t blame the president for other people breaking the law.”
Congressman Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Another CPAC speaker, said the big focus on Trump is understandable, but it is not a sign that the party cannot move forward.
“I think we’re going to move on – with Donald Trump,” he said. “The president has a unifying impact on the base, but whoever is nominated in 2024 will have a job to reach others outside the base.”
The conference agenda includes several key Republicans who hope to succeed Trump as the party’s presidential candidate – but don’t dare say it out loud.
Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rick Scott of Florida, as well as state governor Ron DeSantis and former secretary of state Michael R. Pompeo each have prominent speeches and they will probably praise Trump, avoiding much recognition of the electoral loss.
This simply reflects the reality of where the party’s voters are located, Chaffetz said.
“I don’t think you can be a successful Republican without embracing the central message ‘Make America Great Again’ in your justification for running for public office,” he said.