Closing summary
At the Conservative Political Action Conference today, Republicans who are not Donald Trump tried their best to convince the audience to give them a shot in 2024. Up first was his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who argued that the GOP’s struggle to win the popular vote in recent elections is a sign the party needs a change at the top. Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state who may also launch a presidential campaign, made much the same argument. But several Republicans in attendance weren’t impressed. Indeed, the best received speech of the day was made by Steve Bannon, who spent 15 minutes singing Trump’s praises and condemning those who oppose him, most vociferously Fox News.
Here’s a recap of the day’s events:
A call to defund the police was a surprise applause line at CPAC.
Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to make providing gender-affirming care to minors a felony, and believes Trump will win the GOP nomination next year.
Democrats remain behind Joe Biden, if the statements of House lawmakers are any indication.
The White House condemned Tennessee’s moves to crack down on drag shows in the state.
A big winner at CPAC this year was Newsmax, Fox News’ fringey competitor.
Updated
CPAC’s interests don’t stop at America’s borders.
Among the speakers today was Nigel Farage, who is a familiar face at these conventions. Like many who came before him today, the former leader of the Brexit party used his speech to attack the transgender rights movement, citing the resignation of Scottish National party leader Nicola Sturgeon. Here’s what he said, from the Guardian’s David Smith:
Nigel Farage: Scotland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. "Donald Trump's mum came from Scotland. He's half-Scottish." Nicola Sturgeon wanted Scotland "to become one of the most progressive countries in the world and passed crazy legislation".
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) March 3, 2023
Farage: "If they can turn it around in Scotland against a woman with that level of power, can you turn it around in the United States of America?... Save America and you'll save the free world."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) March 3, 2023
Updated
Steve Bannon just got off stage after an enthusiastic, 15-minute defense of Donald Trump that was the best received speech of the day.
Bannon, a former White House adviser who is appealing a federal prison sentence for ignoring a subpoena from the January 6 committee, won more applause than any speaker before him by singing the former president’s praises and attacking Fox News for ignoring Trump.
“Donald J Trump, let me repeat, in a very volatile time in American history, it was four years of peace and prosperity,” he said, to loud applause, “You know why? He puts you in the room to make decisions.”
“And that’s why they hate him,” Bannon continued. “They don’t hate him because he’s Trump. They hate him because he represents you.”
He then attacked Fox News for not giving the former president enough coverage. “Note to Fox senior management: when Donald J Trump talks, it’s newsworthy,” Bannon declared.
“Maga, Maga, Maga. Remember, Murdoch, you deem Trump’s not going to be president, well we deem that you’re not going to have a network,” Bannon declared as he wrapped up his speech.
Updated
Conservatives at CPAC today heard from one Republican presidential contender, Nikki Haley, and another potential contender, Mike Pompeo. But the convention remains very much Donald Trump’s show.
“I’m still sticking with Trump,” said Gary Wolcott, a 69-year-old retiree from the Virginia suburbs near Washington DC. He acknowledged that Haley’s speech “was definitely impressive, and Pompeo’s, too”. But neither dissuaded him from the support he’s maintained for Trump since his first days as a candidate in 2015.
“I just believe he’s the person who is most for America, and he gave up a lot to run for president. He’s not a career politician, and I know he’s always going to try to do what he thinks is best for America,” Wolcott said.
Karen and Donald Ruthig’s sentiments were much the same.
“He gets things done,” Karen, 77, said of Trump. As for the other candidates, “Maybe they’re wanting to run for vice? I don’t know, but I don’t think they can make it as president.”
Her husband, Donald, called Pompeo’s speech “fabulous”, but Haley’s “predictable”. He didn’t think either could win. “I don’t think Nikki Haley is electable. I don’t think Mike Pompeo is electable, and I’m not even sure that Ron DeSantis is at this point,” he said, referring to the Florida governor who is seen as probably the second strongest contender to Trump among Republicans.
Donald, a 73 year old who was attending the convention along with his wife from Virginia’s rural eastern shore, worried that if the GOP nominates anyone but Trump, many voters will stay home. “Without Trump’s complete base, we haven’t got a prayer,” he said. “So while there may be some very good candidates in the field, the electability issue (makes) him front and center.”
As enduring as his support was for Trump, Wolcott called on the former president to change tactics as he navigates his second GOP primary.
“His liability is, he’s got to stop bashing Republicans. He needs to explain why he’s good, not why they’re bad. So long as he can do that he will easily win the presidency. I’m not sure he can do it,” he said.
Updated
The White House this afternoon decried Tennessee’s aggressive move to limit drag shows in the state.
The state’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, yesterday signed a bill passed by the legislature that restricts public drag show performances – the first state to do that this year, CNN reported.
The law limits “adult cabaret performances” on public property, defining such as a show “that features topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers.”
At the White House press briefing on Friday afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “American people are focussed on so many issues..the economy..healthcare..safety in schools” and lamented Republicans’ targeting activities like drag shows as their priority instead.
“Going after drag shows, how is that going to help people’s lives?” she asked. KJP is the first out gay White House press secretary.
She added that these “ridiculous policies” are “dangerous. They vilify our fellow Americans at a time when LGBTQ Americans are facing heightened violence.”
Joe Biden has the backs of LGBTQ Americans, she noted, “and will continue to be there for the community.”
Earlier this month, famous Tennessee drag queens, including Eureka and Jaidynn Diore Fierce spoke up to Entertainment Weekly, with Eureka calling the bill “blatantly unconstitutional.”
They talked to a competitor on this season’s Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and now fellow Tennessean, Aura Mayari, who said she was deeply upset and saddened by the push and said the law was nothing more than “a mask used to hide discrimination toward the LGBTQ+ community and the desire to erase drag.”
Jaidynn Diore Fierce for all stars / lipsync assassin when? pic.twitter.com/H8XnYY7qTQ
— ᴅʀᴀɢᴍᴇᴛᴏꜰɪʟᴛʜ ◡̈ (@dragmetofilth) February 8, 2023
This feels like the year when CPAC’s centre of gravity shifted from Fox News to Newsmax – more extreme, more fringey and less relevant.
Fox News personnel are thin on the ground as the network, embroiled in crisis over its part in pushing Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, tilts away from him towards rival Ron DeSantis.
Meanwhile Chris Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax, was fawningly interviewed on stage by CPAC co-organiser Mercedes Schlapp. Adverts for Newsmax are running regularly on screens here.
CPAC is teeming with Trump loyalists. Donald Trump Jr, Steve Bannon, Mike Lindell and Sebastian Gorka are causing crowd congestion as the live stream and podcast loudly cluster outside the main ballroom.
Such scenes might symbolise how Trump has lost Fox News but dominates the likes of Newsmax, One America News Network and far right social media. Fox no longer carries his rallies live whereas those channels do - with smaller audiences.
It could be good news for DeSantis, a regular on Fox, as he seeks to command the Republican base and banish Trump to the margins.
Greene on Trump rivals: "It's nice that they're running but they're not going to win"
Here are some more bits and pieces from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s interaction with reporters at CPAC.
She called on everyone in the Republican party to support the eventual nominee for president in 2024 – something that former president Donald Trump seems unlikely to do.
But Greene confirmed that she is endorsing Trump, saying she talks to him “every week” and “I absolutely adore him”.
The Guardian asked: “Would you be his running mate?” Greene replied: “We haven’t really engaged. That’s up to President Trump who he chooses.”
Questioned about her message to former ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and other potential candidates, she added: “Well, it’s nice that they’re running but they’re not going to win. President Trump is going to be the primary. I don’t know what they’re doing it for in the first place.”
And Greene said of Ron DeSantis: “I think he is a fantastic governor for the state of Florida and, at the snail’s pace things get done here in Washington, if I were Florida, I’d give him a third term and beg him to stay as governor.”
US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (Center with back to camera), Republican of Georgia, speaks to reporters during the 2023 Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) Conference. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene just held an impromptu question and answer session with a group of reporters at CPAC – who therefore paid little attention to Kimberly Guilfoyle’s speech from the nearby stage.
The Guardian asked the first couple of questions. Greene, an influential figure in the House of Representative, said: “I think the US should be pushing for peace in Ukraine instead of funding and continuing a war that seems to be escalating and putting the entire world at risk of world war three.”
The Republican from Georgia called for US funding to cease immediately. “Look, I voted for the resolution to support the Ukrainian people and against what Russia has done invading their country. But what the United States is doing is we are actually accelerating a war there and this war should be over.
“We should be promoting peace. Europe should have peace and the United States should do their part. Ukraine is not a Nato member nation and Joe Biden said in the beginning he would not defend Ukraine because they’re not a Nato member nation. It doesn’t make sense and the American people do not support it.”
Later Greene added that Biden is more interested in Ukraine’s border than America’s own or the victims of a toxic rail disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. She also floated an unfounded conspiracy theory that Biden’s son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine is likely underpinning the president’s motivations there.
“Does that play a role in Joe Biden’s commitment to Zelenskiy as if Zelinskiy and Ukraine is the 51st state of the United States of America?... Is that why we’re all going to be dragged into World War three? And I’m sorry, I’m not going on that train and most Americans - pretty much everyone I talk to - is not interested in that either.”
In the final days of the Trump administration, after he had lost the 2020 election, then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo declared that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.”
Pompeo seems to have acknowledged reality in the years since, and stated the grim truth about the GOP’s recent election record in his speech at CPAC today. Here’s a clip:
Potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Pompeo, who declared in November 2020 that there would be a “second Trump administration” even after the election was called for Biden, seems to acknowledge Trump’s loss at CPAC:
— The Recount (@therecount) March 3, 2023
“We lost three elections in a row.” pic.twitter.com/C2AixiOdXf
He later appeared to throw some shade at his former boss:
Potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Pompeo signals some new distance from Donald Trump:
— The Recount (@therecount) March 3, 2023
“We can’t become the left, following celebrity leaders with their own brand of identity politics; those with fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality." pic.twitter.com/maZP39yVyE
Still no word yet from Pompeo on whether he plans to run for the GOP nomination next year.
The day so far
At the Conservative Political Action Conference today, Republicans who are not Donald Trump are trying their best to convince the audience to give them a shot in 2024. Up first was his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who argued that the GOP’s struggle to win the popular vote in recent elections is a sign the party needs a change in leadership. And then she walked out of the speech venue to crowds of conservatives chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” That’s how it goes when you’re not on his side at a conference were Maga rules supreme. We’ll see if candidate Vivek Ramaswamy or Mike Pompeo, who hasn’t announced a run for president yet but is seen as a potential candidate, have better luck with the crowd.
Here’s a recap of the day’s events:
A call to defund the police was a surprise applause line at CPAC.
Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to make providing gender-affirming care to minors a felony.
Democrats remain behind Joe Biden, if the statements of House lawmakers are any indication.
CPAC is a tough place for Republicans who are not on Donald Trump’s side.
Following her speech, Nikki Haley stepped outside the venue to greet conservative attendees – who made their preference for next year’s GOP presidential nomination clear, as this video from Bloomberg News shows:
Crowd chanting “Trump!” as Nikki Haley take photos with supporters after her CPAC speech. pic.twitter.com/iI7WSKSwT9
— Christian Hall (@christianjhall) March 3, 2023
The parade of speeches by former Trump officials continues with Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state from 2018 to 2021.
He’s thought to be considering a run for the White House next year, but hasn’t yet said one way or the other. Let’s hear what he has to say.
Nikki Haley has a tall order in overcoming the former president’s popularity among Republicans.
The latest polls have shown her support well below that of Trump’s. Here’s one from Yahoo News/YouGov, which shows Trump in the lead with 45% support, against Haley’s 4%.
Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, is surely aware of where she would end up if the Republican primary were held today. As she closed out her speech, she appealed to the audience to consider an alternative to the former president.
“We’ve lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. Our cause is right, but we have failed to win the confidence of a majority of Americans. That ends now. If you’re tired of losing, then put your trust in a new generation. And if you want to win – not just as a party, but as a country – then stand with me,” Haley said.
Nikki Haley is now on stage at CPAC, and started her stump speech off by reiterating her call for politicians over the age of 75 to take a mental competency test.
“When I launched my campaign, I said every politician over 75 years old should be required to take a mental competency test. Have you seen DC lately? We should start with Joe Biden – and we shouldn’t stop there,” she said. The last part seemed to stir a murmur of disapproval from the audience, considering that Donald Trump is 76, and would also be subject to one of these tests.
Many seats noticeably empty.
At CPAC at National Harbor in Maryland. Nikki Haley enters to standing ovation but also many empty seats. “The liberal media’s head are exploding about me running for president… Liberals are the most sexist by far.” pic.twitter.com/u7SZOZUCqu
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) March 3, 2023
Updated
At their retreat in Baltimore this week, House Democrats voiced enthusiasm about Joe Biden‘s likely reelection campaign, with the president expected to formally announce his 2024 bid in the next several weeks.
“I think he will win. I think he’s our strongest candidate,” congressman Pete Aguilar, the House Democratic caucus chair, said Thursday at an event with Punchbowl News. Aguilar added, “I think that he can and should run, and he’s going to have the support of the House Democratic caucus.”
Even House progressives, who have previously clashed with Biden over policy concerns, appear to be rallying behind the president. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Thursday that she hopes Biden will announce his reelection campaign sooner rather than later.
“Nobody is surprised that Biden was not my choice in the first election for the primary,” Jayapal said. “But the CPC and the President and his administration have formed an incredibly strong partnership.”
The mayor of a Maryland city has resigned after authorities arrested him on charges of possessing and distributing images of child sexual abuse, according to multiple reports.
Patrick Wojahn, 47, had been the mayor of College Park since 2015 and, before that, a member of the city council there for eight years when he was arrested Thursday. He had submitted his resignation later the previous night, as the local news outlet WBAL reported, but that did little to head off the scandal that his arrest ignited, drawing headlines nationally.
Charging documents cited by the local news station WTOP accused Wojahn of using an anonymous account to upload child abuse imagery to the mobile messaging application Kik in January. Kik officials then alerted the federal missing and exploited children center, which prompted police to subpoena internet service providers’ records that linked the uploads to Wojahn.
Local county investigators searched Wojahn’s home in February, and they seized cell phones, a tablet, a computer and a storage device before Thursday’s arrest.
Wojahn faces 40 counts of possessing child abuse imagery and 16 of distributing it.
College Park has a population of about 35,000 and is just northeast of Washington DC. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wojahn’s arrest shocked the city’s residents.
Local resident Drake Allen said he feared the scandal showed that College Park was “headed in the wrong direction”.
“I don’t know if this is going to wake anybody up. It should, but it probably won’t,” Allen said, before describing how he wishes Wojahn’s successor is “just a regular mayor who does his job.”
On stage at CPAC now is Donald Trump Jr, who came bearing gifts.
“There’s a little surprise for all of you,” he told the audience. “Check under your seats. If there happens to be a gold chocolate bar underneath there … that’s a VIP ticket to my father’s reception tomorrow at CPAC,” the former president’s son said.
Wonder what Roald Dahl would think of that.
Updated
Politico has the scoop on a policy proposal of sorts from Donald Trump, in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
The former president, who of course made his name in real estate, wants to hold a contest to design and build “up to 10 new ‘Freedom Cities’, built from the ground up on federal land”.
He is also proposing…
… an investment in the development of vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles; the creation of ‘hives of industry’ sparked by cutting off imports from China; and a population surge sparked by ‘baby bonuses’ to encourage would-be-parents to get on with procreation.
It is all, his team says, part of a larger nationwide beautification campaign meant to inspire forward-looking visions of America’s future.
Naturally, the man whose (recycled) slogan is “Make America Great Again” heralds the futuristic policy by looking back – in part, regarding the building of the US highway system, to the 1950s, his happy place – and of course to his own four years in the White House.
He says: “Past generations of Americans pursued big dreams and daring projects that once seemed absolutely impossible. They pushed across an unsettled continent and built new cities in the wild frontier. They transformed American life with the interstate highway system – magnificent it was. And they launched a vast network of satellites into orbit all around the earth.
“But today, our country has lost its boldness. Under my leadership, we will get it back in a very big way. If you look at just three years ago, what we were doing was unthinkable, how good it was, how great it was for our country. Our objective will be a quantum leap in the American standard of living.”
There’s quite a lot more. It’s rather odd. Politico also says Trump is expected to talk about policy proposals at CPAC on Saturday.
Stepping away from CPAC for a moment, the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports that leaked audio indicates a lax approach to faulty bearings at major freight rail companies – the very component that failed on the train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio and spilled toxic chemicals:
In leaked audio heard by the Guardian, a manager for one of the US’s largest rail companies can be heard explaining to a former carman that they should stop tagging railcars for broken bearings. The manager says doing so delays other cargo.
The disclosure comes as federal agencies investigate the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. A wheel-bearing failure was cited as the cause of the crash in a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board.
In late 2016, Stephanie Griffin, a former Union Pacific carman, went to her manager with concerns that she was getting pushback for tagging – or reporting for repair – railcars. Her manager told her it was OK to skip inspections.
Griffin asked if the manager could put that in writing. “That’s weird,” said the manager. “We have 56 other people who are not bad-ordering stuff out there. You’re definitely not going to get in trouble for it.”
Griffin said: “He refused to bad-order [mark for repair] cars for bad wheel bearings. My boss took issue with it because it increased our dwell time. When that happened, corporate offices would start berating management to release the cars.”
Dwell time refers to the time a train spends at a scheduled stop without moving. “It’s very obvious that management is not concerned with public safety, and only concerned with making their numbers look good,” Griffin said.
Griffin also claimed she and other workers did not receive any formal training to inspect and repair railcars, and were left to learn from an older worker and figure the rest out from American Association of Railroads and Federal Railroad Administration handbooks. Griffin suggested all major railroad carriers operate similarly.
The former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele possibly spoke for quite a few Americans on Thursday night, when he told the Republican Georgia congresswoman and far-right standard-bearer Marjorie Taylor Greene to “just shut the hell up” about a “national divorce”.
“She has no clue what the hell she’s talking about,” Steele told MSNBC. “Why do we listen to this crazy fool? Marjorie Taylor Greene, please just shut the hell up. Do us all a favor. You are an embarrassment to the Republican party and to the country as a congresswoman.”
Greene, a determined conspiracy theorist and bomb-thrower nonetheless newly powerful in the House GOP, has been advocating a “divorce” between red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states.
“We fought that war,” Steele said, referring to the civil war between 1861 and 1865 which ended with the assassination of the president who won it, Abraham Lincoln.
“A Republican president lost his life over trying to save the union, and this fool wants to split it? So, here we go. This is the kind of crazy that requires a lot of heavy thinking, because she isn’t.”
Greene has said she is not advocating civil war, a prospect some observers fear she is nonetheless bringing uncomfortably close.
The Guardian recommends the work of one such observer, Barbara F Walter, seen here discussing how it “hurts” to be told she looks like Greene, and here discussing her recent book, How Civil Wars Start:
Updated
This is a convention of conservatives, so you shouldn’t be surprised to hear calls for smaller government.
Usually such rhetoric centers around deregulation and cutting taxes. But congressman Matt Gaetz wants to get rid of much of Washington’s law enforcement capabilities.
“Seems every time I turn around, they’re engaged in surveillance or list building or monitoring, and I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy, we either get this government back on our side, or we defund and get rid of, abolish, the FBI, CDC, ATF” and justice department, Gaetz said, to applause.
Welcome to the defund the police club, congressman.
Now on stage is Matt Gaetz, a far-right Republican congressman who you may remember because he just was cleared by the justice department of involvement in sex trafficking.
“I think vindication looks pretty good on me!” the Florida lawmaker said, as he kicked off his remarks.
Another reason to know Gaetz: he was a leader of the group of Republicans who refused to elect Kevin McCarthy speaker of the House until he made concessions, leading to the unprecedented delay in the new chamber’s GOP majority beginning its work.
Rightwing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene just spoke at CPAC, where she railed against familiar targets of conservative ire, such as transgender people and America’s support for Ukraine.
But she also made a bit of news: she plans to reintroduce legislation to make providing gender-affirming care to minors a felony.
“Last Congress, I did something radical and extreme, and remember Marjorie Taylor Greene, she’s so extreme,” she said. The obviously sarcastic remark drew applause.
“I introduced a bill called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act … It couldn’t pass last Congress because like I said, Nancy Pelosi was the speaker of the House, and she doesn’t believe in gender at all,” Greene said, which is a little hard to believe if you have ever heard the Democratic former House speaker talk.
“But we have a new speaker in our Republican majority in the House of Representatives, and I’m going to be introducing my bill, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, that will make it a felony to perform anything to do with gender affirming care.” The crowd erupted in applause.
Greene first introduced the legislation in the last Congress, when Democrats controlled the House and Senate, but it never went anywhere.
The incipient Republican civil war between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis heated up a little today, with news of how the former president reportedly plans to attack the Florida governor in the presidential primary.
Axios reported that Trump plans to attack “Ron DeSanctimonious, as he delights in branding the governor”, in areas including perceived disloyalty, support for changes to Social Security and Medicare and his response to the Covid pandemic.
Trump recently denied road-testing another nickname, Meatball Ron, though he conveniently repeated it in his denial.
DeSantis did not comment on the Axios report. Axios pointed out that earlier this week the governor told Fox News he saw Trump’s attacks as “background noise”.
Trump and the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley are the only major declared candidates for the Republican nomination in 2024. DeSantis is among others expected to run.
Trump and DeSantis dominate polling, though Trump has recently enjoyed a boost. Polls have also shown Haley and DeSantis splitting anti-Trump support, giving Trump the win.
Axios said Trump would focus on votes DeSantis cast as a congressman to raise the eligibility aid for Medicare.
In a related attack line, Trump reportedly wants to link DeSantis to Paul Ryan, the former vice-presidential nominee and House speaker now on the board at Fox and a regular Trump target.
Covid, Axios said, “is a top Trump target, even though the governor is known for resisting mask mandates. Trump plans to attack DeSantis’ caution in the earliest days of the pandemic – and try to fight the issue to a draw”.
On a similarly muddy issue, Trump reportedly wants to portray DeSantis as “wishy-washy on the war” in Ukraine, while he himself “toes the MAGA line of cutting aid”.
Finally, Axios said Trump planned to attack DeSantis for perceived disloyalty, after Trump supported his first bid for governor in 2018, and likability.
Speaking to Fox News this week, DeSantis said Trump “used to say how great of a governor I was. And then I win a big victory [in the 2022 midterms] and all of a sudden he had different opinions. And so you could take that for what it’s worth.”
Donald Trump may be beloved at CPAC, but he’s apparently been banned by Fox News? That’s what the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports:
Fox News has imposed a “soft ban” on Donald Trump appearing on the channel, his inner circle is reportedly complaining, even as the broadcaster extends a warm invitation to other Republican hopefuls in next year’s presidential election.
The news startup Semafor reports that the cooling of relations between the former president and his once-beloved cable news channel has gone so far that a “soft ban” or “silent ban” is now holding Trump at arm’s length. The former US president has not made a weekday showing on Fox News since he chatted with his closest friend among the network’s star hosts, Sean Hannity, in September.
Meanwhile, Trump’s rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are currently frequent guests on Fox. Media Matters for America, a watchdog that keeps a close eye on the network’s output, has counted seven weekday appearances by the former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley since she launched her presidential bid last month.
Even the lesser known right-wing activist and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who threw his hat into the ring last week, has appeared four times on Fox. Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, who is widely expected to compete with Trump though he has yet to declare, is also repeatedly seen on the network.
The big question for 'hardcore Maga' of CPAC: how does Trump's popularity endure?
Many, many things have changed in American politics since 2016, but one thing has stayed the same – Donald Trump’s position as the most popular man in the Republican party.
He’s been in a commanding position among Republicans ever since clinching its presidential nomination more than six years ago, and that dynamic hasn’t meaningfully changed in the years since. Case in point: the latest batch of opinion polls show him essentially blowing all the other potential contenders for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination out of the water.
As Sebastian Gorka made clear at the start of today’s events, CPAC is very much a convention of the “hardcore Maga”. Trump speaks tomorrow, but his most powerful presumed challenger next year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, isn’t showing up at all. Instead, CPAC attendees will today hear from Nikki Haley, who is running next year, and Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state who is expected to launch a campaign.
CPAC attracts conservatives from across the country. We’ll try to let you know what they think of Trump’s challengers, and whether they agree that – after all that’s happened – he remains the best man to lead the GOP.
Updated
Conservatives convene for marquee convention CPAC
Good morning, US politics blog readers. We’re coming to you today from Oxon Hill, Maryland, a place not everyone has heard of but which is currently host to an event many of you have – the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Sebastian Gorka, a former White House adviser to Donald Trump who just took the stage, encapsulated its purpose well in his greeting to the audience: “this is the hardest of the hardcore Maga, right?” The king of Maga himself is not expected at the conference until tomorrow, and today’s highest profile speaker is Nikki Haley, a fellow contender for the Republican presidential nomination who is due at 12 pm. Also speaking are conservative firebrands like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump Jr and Steve Bannon.
There is a world outside CPAC. Here’s what’s happening in it:
Joe Biden is at the White House, where he’ll award the Medal of Honor to retired army colonel Paris Davis for actions during the Vietnam War, and then welcome German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Kamala Harris is heading to San Francisco for a fundraiser and roundtable with small businesses.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters at 12.45pm.
