The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) opens on Thursday, 24 February in Orlando, Florida, with Donald Trump once again its headline speaker as he seeks to re-establish his grasp over the Republican Party ahead of a long-rumoured presidential run in 2024.
His audience can expect plenty of plugs for the former president’s new Truth Social app, gripes about his ongoing legal troubles and more conspiracy theorising about his defeat at the ballot box in 2020 – and he may even hug the flag again.
A four-day gathering of right-wing activists from across the US, CPAC was founded in 1974 by the American Conservative Union and Young Americans for Freedom and its inaugural address was given by Ronald Reagan, then California governor and a presidential candidate two years later, who used the platform to lay out his vision for the country.
It has since become an all-important date in the conservative calender, an opportunity for American right-wingers to come together to compare notes on an array of issues concerning their value system, from the Second Amendment right to bear arms to abortion.
“We will not be cancelled — and you don’t want to miss it!” is the tagline for this year’s event, hinting heavily at a “culture wars” flavour to proceedings.
Other stand-out guests addressing CPAC 2022 include ex-Hawaii congresswoman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Britain’s own “Mr Brexit” Nigel Farage and, weirdest of all, pizza impresario Papa John himself.
The rest of the lineup is the familiar who’s-who of Magaworld: Donald Trump Jr; Florida governor Ron DeSantis; Candace Owens; Glenn Beck; Matt and Mercedes Schlapp; ex-Trump administration officials Mike Pompeo, Larry Kudlow, Robert O’Brien, Ric Grenell, Sean Spicer, Ben Carson, Sebastian Gorka, Matt Whitaker and KT McFarland.
Senators Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Marsha Blackburn, Andy Biggs, Madison Cawthorn, James Langford, Mike Braun and Bill Hagerty are all featured speakers, as are members of Congress Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Byron Donalds, Ronny Jackson and Ken Buck.
Oddly given much lower billing than you might have expected are such Republican favourites as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Marco Rubio, Jack Posobiec, JD Vance, Buck Sexton, Dr Oz and Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, also known as the “Trump of the Tropics”.
Perhaps less surprisingly, there is no place whatsoever for Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, who have been censured by the Republican National Committee and accused of betraying Mr Trump by serving on the House committee investigating the failed insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 202,1 and by calling for the 45th president’s second impeachment for inciting the events of that day in which five people died.
Also not present are Former Vice President Mike Pence and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, both of whom are tipped to run against Mr Trump in two years time.
They will instead spend this weekend speaking at a Principles First summit, billed as “counterprogramming” to CPAC and that promises to address “the meaning of conservatism today and the future of our movement”.
Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and impeachment witness Lt Col Alexander Vindman will also be speaking at that one.
Back in Orlando, some of the tantalising events being laid on for CPAC attendees include talks with titles like “Fighting Woke Inc”, “Are you ready to be called a racist?: The courage to run for office”; “War: A Tribute to Andrew Breitbart”; “All the News the Left Permits”; “Making Middle East Peace Great Again”; “Put Him to Bed, Lock Her Up and Send Her to the Border”; “Why the Working Class Hates the Democrats”; “Fire Fauci”; “The Moron in Chief”; and “Biden’s Breadlines”.
This year’s event runs from Thursday morning until the evening of Sunday 27 February and will be available to stream on the CPAC website, on YouTube and across major US news networks.
The Independent will be running liveblogs to cover its main events in addition to bringing you all the breakout stories.
