ORLANDO, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump is the headliner tonight at the CPAC conference in Orlando.
The four-day event at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort is the biggest gathering of conservatives in America each year.
Trump is scheduled to speak to a standing-room-only crowd at 7 p.m.
Only attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference and news media will be allowed to attend, and security is expected to be tight for the ex-president.
Earlier Saturday, Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida spoke to the conference saying, “great civilizations that collapsed ... were first hollowed out from the inside.”
“Today we face the greatest danger,” he said. “The militant left-wing within our country has become the enemy within.”
He said the American people would defeat “socialism” in the election this fall.
CPAC will close on Sunday with the release of a straw poll about the 2024 presidential race. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished second to Trump in that poll when the conference was held in Orlando last year, but he led if Trump wasn’t included in the list of potential Republican candidates.
At the convention in 2021, Trump hinted for the first time that he might seek the White House again and called for Republican unity. He has yet to make any public decision.
———
