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President Donald Trump closed out the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday as a triumphant hero returning to his homeland.
CPAC, which usually takes place at National Harbor in Maryland just outside Washington, holds a special place in Trump’s heart since he gave his first major political speech in 2011. That launched his trajectory to run for president four years later.
“Nobody’s ever seen anything like this and nobody ever seen four weeks we’ve had,” he said, comparing to a game of golf, also repeating his lies of rampant voter fraud even though he won.
“Despite that, they cheated like hell,” he said. “It was just too big to rig. It was just too big to rig.”
In one corner of the auditorium, Trump was cheered on by those pardoned for their actions during the January 6 riot. Referring again to those prosecuted as “hostages,” the moment solidified the events that day not as something for which the President was morally responsible, but rather part of his lore which should be celebrated.
Trump has plenty of reason to celebrate. After being impeached twice – the latter of which should have ended his career after the January 6 riot – he pulled off a return to the White House many considered unthinkable just a few years ago, winning every swing state in the process. The Republican Party that once felt uneasy about him at the helm has subsumed itself to his embrace.
The failed assassination attempt in July turned him into a quasi-religious figure.
But beyond Trump’s conquest, the decision by CPAC to fully hitch itself to his movement showed how it lacks a coherent future.
In the past, CPAC served as an audition for ambitious young Republicans to see how they would be received by the base of the party. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, J.D. Vance and Ron DeSantis all at one point addressed the conference, as did Trump.
Now, much like the GOP itself, Trump has eclipsed the rest of the conservative movement. Few up-and-coming voices descended on the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. Only a few rising stars like Florida congressman Byron Donalds, whom Trump backed to be governor, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former press secretary who now works as governor of Arkansas, came down. Unlike past conferences, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were not on hand.
Rather, much of the attention focused on talks with Trump’s new administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi, his special presidential envoy Ric Grenell, his National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller served as the main attractions.
Take Vance for example. On the first full day of CPAC, he was supposed to be the keynote speaker on Thursday as a sort of coming out as vice president. Last year’s CPAC straw poll showed him as the conference’s favorite senator.
But instead, as has been the case throughout the first month of the Trump presidency, CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp and his wife Mercedes announced that Elon Musk would speak later in the day.
Few people remembered Vance’s address, but almost all of the reports of CPAC led with images of Musk, whom as a naturalized citizen cannot run for president, wearing his Dark MAGA hat and shades, swinging around a chainsaw gifted to him by Argentinian President Javier Milei.
Vance couldn’t even be his own man on a separate occasion. Before Trump took the stage, his campaign pollster Jim McLaughlin released the results of this year’s straw poll showing 61 percent of attendees want Vance to be the 2028 Republican nominee.
“And why? Because he’s viewed as the closest thing to Donald Trump,” McLaughlin said.
Steve Bannon, who landed in hot water when he delivered what the leader France’s far-right National Rally considered to be a Nazi salute, came in second place. But instead of talking about the next generation, Bannon said he wanted to stay on the Trump train.
“The future of MAGA is Donald J Trump,” he said on Thursday to applause. “We want Trump in ‘28. That’s what they can’t stand. A man like Trump comes along only once or twice in the country’s history. We want Trump!”
Bannon proceeded to lead a chant of people shouting “We want Trump!”
In the same token, Schlapp said after 2021, he and Mercedes rejected the idea of letting other people have their turn.
“We knew in our hearts, we knew in our souls that there was only one man ordained to do this most impossible job,” he said.
But hitching an entire political movement to one singular figure has significant perils. In one way or another, Trump will exit the stage. He could choose not to run again, he could lose again should he run for a third term, despite the U.S. Constitution forbidding it. Or he could die in office.
Focusing entirely on Trump – especially given the fact he his specific politics have never been in line with conservative orthodoxy – risks his movement dying with him.
Political parties ostensibly exist to prevent ideological movements investing entirely in one person.
For all their mewling and moping after losing to Trump, the Democratic Party is behaving like a proper party, figuring out what went wrong, what to do next and how to win again.
It will be messy, but necessary if Democrats want to ever return to the White House or control the House of Representatives or the Senate again.
But CPAC shows that while Trumpworld is victorious now, it has yet to create a long-term plan for the future.
