This year, due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was organized by the American Conservative Union not as usual near Washington, but at the huge conference center of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Orlando. Here in Florida, there are no restrictions on the size of gatherings, and the restrictions are limited to wearing masks in public, keeping a distance of 6 feet, and measuring the temperature of participants.
Since I have been living in Florida for several years, I registered for CPAC conferences representing Kuryer Polski, and after thorough verification, I was accredited by the organizers. The conference, along with several dozen accompanying events, lasted from February 25 to 28, 2021.
The author at the Conference
The culminating moment of the conference was the first public political speech by Donald J. Trump since he left the White House, on Sunday, February 28. A few days earlier, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, Matt Schlapp, announced that President Trump's speech would be a very important step to reset the politics of the Republicans and the entire conservative movement in the US. Schlapp stressed that the Republicans who were part of the so-called Washington establishment may not like some elements of Trump's policy, but they must like the millions of Americans that Trump has drawn into the conservative coalition. Similar views were expressed for three days by virtually all the speakers, as well as hundreds of participants with whom I had the pleasure of speaking with for four days.
A few hours before Trump's speech, the organizers summarized the results of a survey conducted among thousands of participants at this conference. 97% positively assessed President Trump's 4-year term in office. If he decided to run again for the presidential election in 2024, he would have the support of 55% of the conference participants. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won 21%, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem won 4%. However, in a situation where President Trump would not run again, DeSantis received 43%, Noem 11%, Donald Trump Jr. 8%, Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz 7% each. A previous poll of Republican voters by Rasmussen found 73% believed that party leaders should "be like Trump."
Donald J. Trump at the Conference
Donald Trump entered the CPAC scene almost like a rock star, and was so received by the participants, who responded with an ovation to the question "Did you miss me?" Already at the beginning of his speech, Trump stated that Joe Biden had the worst first month of presidency in modern US history, proving that his policy is anti-business and anti-family, that it led to a crisis on the Mexican border — mass smuggling of children and drugs. Trump said Joe Biden has "sold American children's education to teachers' unions," which oppose the opening of schools, despite the fact that scientists and doctors talk about the low likelihood of schoolchildren transmitting the virus on the one hand, and an epidemic of depression, drug addiction, and suicides among adolescents, on the other. Trump said that Biden was stealing young people's future by locking them up in their homes and unjustifiably restricting their access to education. He also mentioned that the new law passed by the House of Representatives is intended to allocate huge sums to the opening of schools, while previously allocated funds have not yet been spent. Trump called on President Biden to open all schools as soon as possible.
Trump then insisted that his Operation "Warp Speed" led to the production of the vaccines against the Chinese Virus in nine months, not a few years, which had been the standard until now. During his term of office, 20 million Americans were vaccinated, of which as much as 1.5 million on the last day of his presidency. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has publicly stated that the vaccine was not available prior to his coming to power on January 20. By the way, Biden himself was vaccinated during Trump's tenure.
Trump criticized Biden's return to the Marxist Critical Race Theory, opening borders to citizens of countries deemed terrorist and lifting, without any negotiation, sanctions against Iran. He also criticized the return of the Biden administration to the World Health Organization, which is largely controlled by communist China, as well as the return to the Paris Climate Accord, which imposes costly restrictions on the US and not on the countries polluting the atmosphere the most, such as China, India and Russia. He then criticized Biden for halting the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the US and the associated loss of thousands of well-paid jobs. Trump also stressed that one of the first Biden decrees was the consent to participate in women's sports of the, so-called, transgender people. He stated that this would be the end of women's sports successes, who would not be able to compete with biological men. Finally, he also referred to the financial scandals linking Joe Biden and his son Hunter to communist China.
Donald Trump noted that virtually all decisions made by the Biden administration will turn against him and against the Democrats, who he believes will lose the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2022, and the presidency as well in 2024. "I can make the decision to beat them the third time," Trump said, ironically referring to the last election, which he believes he has won overwhelmingly. He then summarized many examples of electoral fraud that have taken place in many states: counting the votes of those who died without US citizenship, people who voted multiple times, validation of voting results in districts where more ballots were received than registered voters, etc. At this point, conference participants they started chanting "You won! You won!"
Trump attacked social media that had too much influence on the elections, suggested breaking up monopolies and restoring fair competition. He also referred to the second amendment to the US Constitution on several occasions - the right to own firearms, which Biden and the Democrats want to limit.
Trump also stated that, contrary to rumors, he would not form a new political party, but would do everything to rid the Republican Party of people who betrayed conservative and pro-American ideas. Republicans will have to fight the expansion of socialism, communism and the disastrous decisions of the Joe Biden administration for the next four years, Trump stressed. "This is our movement, we are just getting started," said Trump. In his opinion, the Republicans must unite to be effective in this fight. “Our party is based on love for America and the belief that it is a unique country, blessed by God. We respect our great American flag, ”concluded Donald Trump. The audience answered him chanting "We love you!"
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Photos by the author.
Translation from Polish by Andrew Woźniewicz.
