The annual Conservative Political Action Conference got underway just outside Washington, D.C. on Thursday. CPAC has largely abandoned its libertarian-leaning roots to embrace the aggressive authoritarianism of President Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and its overseas partners. This year’s conference is triumphalist in tone, not surprising given Trump’s election victory and combative first 30 days.
Key Trump administration and MAGA movement figures were featured on the first day, including Vice President J.D. Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, “Department of Government Efficiency” mastermind Elon Musk, and Steve Bannon.
Speaker after speaker dutifully repeated Trump’s claims that his election will usher in a new “golden age” for America.
Speaker after speaker repeated false DOGE claims about uncovering massive “waste, fraud, and abuse” in government spending.
The crowd cheered every time a speaker celebrated the Senate confirmation of FBI Director Kash Patel, who was embraced by Senate Republicans despite evidence that he committed perjury during his confirmation hears when asked about the ongoing purge of career officials from the FBI.
Some highlights and low points of CPAC Day 1:
- Vice President J.D. Vance kicked off the conference in an interview with CPAC’s Mercedes Schlapp, who declared him “the greatest vice president” after he’d served for 30 days. Asked if he had a message for young men, Vance told them not to be dissuaded by a “broken culture” that he said tells young men that they’re a bad person if they like to tell a joke or have a beer with friends. (Seriously?) “The cultural message,” he claimed, “wants to turn everybody, whether male or female, into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, act the same.”
- Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, took a break from overseeing the firing of thousands of scientists, forestry workers, VA doctors and nurses, and humanitarian aid workers to revel in cheers from the MAGA crowd. As Musk came onstage for a conversation with Newsmax personality Rob Schmitt, Argentina’s MAGA-minded President Javier Milei gave Musk a chainsaw, which he gleefully waved over his head. Musk told the crowd he’s having fun.
- Musk claimed falsely that the Biden administration was spending money to bring in “as many illegals as possible” as part of a “giant voter importation scam.”
- Pam Bondi, Trump’s friend, lawyer, and Attorney General, was interviewed on stage by Sen. Ted Cruz for his (shamelessly promoted) podcast. Asked about former President Joe Biden, Bondi declared, “No one is above the law,” a laughable line given her lack of concern over the ongoing reckless lawbreaking of Trump and his team—not to mention Trump’s pardons of violent criminals who attacked Capitol Police on Jan. 6, 2021.
- Bondi was asked about the Trump administration’s dubious deal with New York Mayor Eric Adams; she insisted that the case against Adams was politically motivated and “incredibly weak”—a claim that is hard to accept given how many prosecutors quit rather than endorse the deal. Bondi falsely claimed that “violent crime is at an all-time high” in New York, which is not even close to the truth.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson declared that Trump is “unifying for the country” and vowed that Republicans will defy historical precedent and gain seats in the 2026 midterms by going on offense against Democrats in districts that Trump won or lost by just a few points. He celebrated that “Elon and his team”—nobody at CPAC even pretended to believe White House claims that Musk is not in charge of DOGE—are “inside the belly of the beast” and “the algorithms are crawling through,” which he called a “revolutionary moment.”
- Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) hit all the MAGA talking points, celebrating the rise of the “new Right” and focusing on “wokeness” as the biggest threat to America. “Right now, President Trump has his foot on the neck of wokeism and driven a stake through the heart of those who hate America,” Banks said, calling on Congress to codify Trump’s executive orders.
- Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-NJ) talked about need for the Justice Department to protect free speech by taking on the “massive concentrations of power” represented by huge tech companies, but then declared with no apparent sense of contradiction that “60 Minutes ought to get sued for the nonsense that he did to President Trump in the interviews.”
- Political operative Steve Bannon went back to MAGA basics, insisting the 2020 election was stolen and that the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was a "fedsurrection" set up by the FBI and Department of Justice. He said he had talked to Rick Grinnell, newly installed as head of the Kennedy Center, about having the J6 choir perform there. Bannon called Trump "an instrument of divine providence" and said the Holy Spirit is working through the MAGA movement, before finishing with a quick gesture that looked an awful lot like a Nazi salute--enough, in fact, that a far-right French politician cancelled his scheduled speech at CPAC.
- The National Anthem was sung by Natasha Owens, who strolled onto the stage in a ridiculous dress, stars and stripes hanging off her butt and a partisan message displayed across the front: Democrats Officially Getting Exposed.
- Not on stage, but spotted in the hallway, was Michael Flynn associate Ivan Raiklin, entertaining a crowd with his call for newly confirmed Kash Patel to take a “retribution tour.” Raiklin has published an enemies’ list even longer than Patel’s.
One bit of news swirling around CPAC that wasn’t mentioned from the stage, but was hard not to think about when CPAC and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp walked onstage holding hands with his wife, was the latest allegation involving Schlapp groping the crotch of an unconsenting man. A previous allegation was hushed up with a payment of nearly half a million dollars and Schlapp survived the political fallout. It’s too early to tell how the latest incident, reportedly in front of multiple witnesses, might affect his standing in the MAGA movement.
This post was updated to include information on Steve Bannon's remarks at CPAC.
