10

Loading video...

By Alex J. Rouhandeh

National Political Correspondent

0

Share

Newsweek is a Trust Project member

See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.

The most confusing thing about the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) may be the dress code. For most attendees it’s business professional—suits with matching tie-pocket square combos, dresses with high heels and occasionally just a nice shirt and pair of pants. “I think it'd be cool if everyone dressed up a little bit more,” Andrew Belcher, the president of Miami University's College Republicans who fell in the professional dress category, told Newsweek. “Definitely in previous years, you used to see more people who were wearing suits, and looked more, as far as dress goes, put together.”

For some, though, it’s MAGA festive—bedazzled jackets, cowboy hats, shirts with creative overtures to President Donald Trump. Yet what constitutes “MAGA” today has become increasingly difficult to define. The president has one definition. “MAGA is me,” he said in a January NBC interview. “MAGA loves everything I do, and I love everything I do, too.” But for a movement that must reckon with Trump’s term limit in under three years, that definition may no longer be enough.

Used so ubiquitously in the political lexicon, it’s sometimes easy to forget that MAGA stands for Make America Great Again. There are internal tensions within the simple acronym. If the people who make up MAGA are supposed to be living in a “Golden Age of America,” as Trump likes to say, maybe it needs an update to the past tense: Made America Great Again? Or is the movement, focused as much on retribution and grievances as it is, even capable of rejoicing in its own triumphs? What happens to a greatness deferred? Does it explode?

Read More on Politics

...

CPAC has long been the safe place for the conservative id to perform without restraint, often gleefully casting doubts about its own Republican political leaders as much as the liberal forces lurking in society. A presidential straw poll at CPAC 2010 went overwhelmingly for Ron Paul over eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Today, that effect can still be felt strongly as CPAC leaders Matt and Mercedes Schlapp saw their stage taken over by a cohort of podcasters, influencers, and rightwing reporters who are more comfortable stoking fear about far-flung cultural threats and attacking those to their left (even if they’re Republican) than basking in any of the reflected glory of the GOP’s recent electoral high-water marks. In the 71 years since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Republicans ruled D.C., the GOP has enjoyed a federal trifecta controlling the White House, Senate and House for just eight years: two years of Trump’s second term, two years of his first term and four years during the George W. Bush Administration.

“After last year’s CPAC, I remember turning to people around me, and I said, ‘You know, I should just quit now because there's no way we'll ever have a CPAC that dominates the news and has this much excitement because the political resurrection of Donald Trump was a story that is so unique in the history of mankind,” Matt Schlapp told Newsweek. “This year, the conservative movement hasn't been showing its best side. It's been squabbling, and a lot of people were sending me text messages saying, ‘I won't appear if that person appears, and you better not invite this person, or I won't go.’ I realized all this was going on, and it kind of made me want to barf.”

Despite Schlapp’s best efforts, that feeling was unavoidable at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas where CPAC 2026 was supposed to be overseeing an apex of conservative control of American policy but instead presided over something else. President Trump, for the first time in 10 years, did not attend the event. In his absence was a grievance fest about a nation heading terribly off course, with foes at every turn to defy the greatness for which MAGA yearns.

If MAGA cannot accept that the Republican Party they’ve long wanted is here, then they risk missing the fact that they are now the establishment they’ve long railed against. A room full of complainers never makes for a good party. Especially if, as was the case at CPAC, the MAGA president doesn’t show up to save the night.

Money Money

Normally, CPAC is held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, outside D.C. However, this year’s move to Texas gave the event a sense of an outsider’s rugged individualism. Reverend Franklin Graham took the CPAC stage to offer attendees a warning.

...

The famed evangelist had left the GOP in 2015 to become an independent after Washington Republicans passed a budget that continued funding for Planned Parenthood. “I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party or Tea Party to do what is best for America,” he said at the time. “Unless more godly men and women get in this process and change this wicked system, our country is in for trouble.” Yet here he stood on the CPAC stage, telling the audience, “Be cautious of people with podcasts and social media platforms who make money by views, clicks, and the number of followers they have,” he said. “They like to cause a stir because they can profit.”

His advice was not taken by CPAC organizers, and such tensions were enflamed prominently. “We have the evidence that the Republican establishment did not want you to see that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump,” Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser turned host of the War Room podcast, said from the stage. “Everywhere you look around, the Republican establishment creates a mess that you have to go in and clean up.”

Of the 136 speakers CPAC listed on its website, 44 were podcasters, conservative journalists, and influencers, and 36 were heads of conservative companies and nonprofits, a bulk of which would not be recognizable to most Americans. The remaining 56 speakers came from political backgrounds, 15 internationally. The most recognizable of the U.S. politicians included Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

“It seems like they're letting anybody and everybody with a podcast speak,” Belcher, the College Republican from Miami said, looking across a sparsely attended expo floor toward a large group huddled in front of a live news broadcast of Real America's Voice. “I don't know who any of the any of these people are.”

“Without the Iran war, I don't think anybody would have been disappointed,” Schlapp said in response to concerns CPAC was too niche this year. “I don't ask for people's speeches ahead of time. We don't try to censor what they say. We try to put together the best assortment of speakers for the issues that are dominating the news, and they say what they want.”

However, concern over what words might come out of a speaker’s mouth was not always as high for CPAC, the nation’s oldest conservative political convention. Every Republican president since Ronald Reagan has delivered a speech at the event at some point in their career. Historically, the convention largely served as a unifying event for America’s conservatives, at one time boasting sponsors that included the Motion Picture Association of America, Facebook and Google.

After Trump took control of the Republican Party, it started to shift, however. The 45th president’s victory in the crowded 2016 primary effectively toppled the existing Republican Establishment, injecting the party with a combination of populism and distrust that was especially hostile to the way things were done before.

Replacing the Fortune 500 sponsors were ideological firms, like merch marketplace Made Right USA and Patriot Mobile (“America’s ONLY Christian Conservative Wireless Provider”). What the convention lost in establishment wealth, it made up in MAGA fandom, embracing a tiered ticket model ranging from $295 general admission to a $95,000 Platinum Plus package featuring lounge access, the Ronald Reagan Dinner, and VIP meet and greets.

“CPAC in Texas felt more like a lobbying bonanza, where sponsors and influence peddlers could buy access to prominent figures within the MAGA movement,” Ketil Raknes, a researcher of lobbying and right-wing populism at Norway’s Kristiania University College, who attended the event, told Newsweek. “If the goal is to build a genuine grassroots movement, offering Platinum, VIP, and Gold tickets may ultimately be counterproductive.”

...

Schlapp said, “there's no pay to play” and emphasized that with some tickets discounted to $47, the event costs less than many families would pay for a fast-food meal. To the point on corporate sponsors, he said the event’s prior reliance was during a time when CPAC was in a more dire financial situation and when the organization was more aligned with corporate America on common interests like “lower taxes and less regulation.” As issues like DEI become a greater contention point, Schlapp said he was “canceled.” Fortunately, CPAC no longer needs these relationships, he said:

“By the time they told us they thought we were racist and they wouldn't have anything to do with us, we didn't need them anymore,” Schlapp said. “We had swapped their money with $100 from grandma and $25 from the cop.”

Don’t Kill My Vibe

Still, while high-paying attendees may have gotten their guaranteed access, lower-paying attendees Newsweek spoke with suggested the organization did not deliver this year on its guarantee of a good time. It wasn’t just that this year’s speakers lacked star power, some thought they were derailing the mood. “They're killing the vibe,” Jacob Terenzini, a member of the College Republicans at Boise State University told Newsweek. “Just enjoy a win when you get one—It’s always complaining.”

In the foyer outside the ballroom with the main stage was a roughly 10-foot-tall screen that featured an image of Trump with his fist in the air and the words “one year of winning.” Terenzini seemed to suggest that not enough of those speaking on the main stage had absorbed the message.

He noted the administration has successfully delivered its anti-immigration agenda whilst raising U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding and notably taking out the Ayatollah of Iran. “That was pretty killer.” Terenzini noted there’s been some heated debate on the right. Some of it’s healthy, he said, like the kind amongst College Republicans. Other people though: “Pretend they're America first, and really they just kind of hate America.”

Debate over America’s involvement in Iran was an issue that took center stage and cast a shadow over the entire event. While the situation undoubtably stands as the story in U.S. politics, attendees seemed to suggest that it was getting more attention than it deserved. Multiple people Newsweek interviewed said some version of the sentiment that the narrative of a steep MAGA divide over the war was largely playing out on X and in podcasts rather than in CPAC afterparties and bars patroned by rank-and-file Trump voters. Data appears to back the sentiment. A March CBS poll found 92 percent of self-identified “MAGA Republicans” approved of the U.S. taking military action against Iran.

Anecdotally, CPAC attendees did not appear 92 percent unified, as an array of opinions could be easily gathered regarding America’s involvement. Yet it seemed the amount of scrutiny devoted to the topic—almost every speaker would mention the war—did not match the interest of CPAC attendees.

“The only positives I heard was from RFK,” Liza Niccoletti, a three-time attendee, told Newsweek. “If CPAC was in D.C., there would be a more celebratory and united feel—This CPAC is lackluster in comparison. Of course, Trump not being here is one variable. But the zest is just not here. I’ve been asking guests, they do feel similarly.”

Not Your Usual CPAC

Those who seemed to be having the most jubilant time at CPAC were members of the Iranian diaspora. Dozens of individuals dressed in “Persians for Trump” and “Make Iran Great Again” exerted a notable presence on the first day that grew to dominate the event as hundreds filled the Gaylord in anticipation for a speech by the exiled Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi. At the time of Pahlavi’s speech, the ballroom filled to standing room only yet diminished to under half maximum occupancy less than an hour later.

...

One 54-year-old Iranian woman, who spoke to Newsweek on the condition of anonymity because she feared her family in Iran could be harmed if she spoke against the current government, said her presence at the event marked a political transformation. Until now, she was relatively uninvolved in U.S. politics but felt more aligned with the Democratic Party. However, she cast her first ballot in the Texas Primary as a Republican after the Trump Administration made its move against Iran.

“I know many people who’ve had their perspective changed because it's not about a party, it’s about what is best for our country, both here and back home,” she told Newsweek. “We love that President Trump is thinking about the United States, which he’s supposed to do, but he's also thinking about the world as well, the safety of the whole world.”

Newsweek interviewed attendees of South Korean origin who spoke about their appreciation for America conservatism as they fear encroachment by Communist China in the East. Similarly, attendees from Australia spoke of their appreciation for the administration’s hawkish disposition as the country looks to partner with the United States in countering Chinese encroachment in the Pacific.

CPAC as an organization prides itself on a global disposition, holding forums over the past year in Japan, Hungary, Poland, Australia, and Paraguay, which made it all the more perplexing why the event would cede stage time to the likes of Bannon and former Representative Matt Gaetz, both of whom brought their track records of eschewing foreign involvements to the stage. "A ground invasion of Iran will make our country poorer and less safe," Gaetz said. "It will mean higher gas prices, higher food prices, and I'm not sure we would end up killing more terrorists than we would create."

By no means do these figures hold the star power and “must see” status of their primes. Gaetz withdrew his nomination for Attorney General after it became clear he didn’t have the votes amid sexual misconduct allegations. Similarly, Bannon has faced controversy over his personal relationship with the disgraced financier and child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

These are the individuals that Belcher said he and his Miami University peers are able to tolerate but ultimately wish would fade away from the CPAC milieu. “I’m not a fan of Steve Bannon whatsoever,” he said. “Grifters are here every year, but it seems like there are less people here with an organization, whether it's Young Republicans or College Republicans or county parties or state parties, it seems to be mostly the grifter crowd.”

“I'll be honest, there're a lot of people who I don't get along with, but I know that their voice is important, and we try to invite those people,” Schlapp said. “It's just the way it is.”

While it may be fun to embrace the colorful characters and fanciful stories that emerged from irrelevance to conservative media dominance with the ascent of Trump, these individuals made their careers as disrupters of the establishment. However, for rank-and-file CPAC attendees, it eventually gets exhausting to be stuck as the perpetual outsider who’s always denied the spoils and mainstream relevancy that come with being the winner.

Therein lies the problem facing Republicans. For MAGA, the natural tendency has been to act as an oppressed outsider. Yet with two terms of Trump and a purging of his enemies, MAGA has become the establishment it set out to defeat. Thus, the question lingers—If removing Steve Bannon from the CPAC speaker lineup results in getting AT&T as an event sponsor instead of Patriot Mobile, is that a win or a loss for MAGA? While being the underdog can be fun and unifying for a while, a decade of that gets tiring, and it just becomes more fun to be on top. MAGA has yet to allow itself that luxury, and thus its 2026 CPAC underwhelmed and its electoral performance in 2026 will likely underwhelm too.

Outside the CPAC expo, a small group of attendees were gathered outside in the smoking section, waiting for their turn to chat with Enrique Tarrio. As the former chairman of the Proud Boys who was convicted and pardoned for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot, Tarrio was treated as a bit of a CPAC celebrity. He’s been attending the event going back to before Trump took office and said it’s common to see a decreased presence in midterm years. “I assume the next CPAC is going to be very lit,” he told Newsweek. All that needs to change is for Republicans to lose. “My prediction is conservatives lose the House, which means impeachment for the president, and that will bring unity.”

View 0 Comments

Request Reprint & Licensing

Submit Correction

View Editorial & AI Guidelines