Who is cpac

Mr Trump strongly criticised his successor, saying US policy had gone from "America first to America last". The speech comes weeks after Mr Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial. The Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC is the country's largest meeting of conservative activists and politicians, and usually gives insight into the direction of the Republican Party.

Mr Trump's appearance at the meeting on Sunday suggests he has continued influence over the party despite some senior politicians distancing themselves recently from the ex-president.

The mood of the conference in Orlando - which began on Thursday - has been extremely pro-Trump, with loyalists including Texas Senator Ted Cruz and his son Donald Trump Jr among the speakers. The former president remains banned from social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, over his response to January's deadly riot at the US Capitol.

The year-old former president was cheered by supporters when he appeared on stage at the Hyatt Regency Hotel more than an hour late. Many people in the crowd were not wearing masks. He dismissed any idea that he might start a new political party - describing rumours he would do so as "fake news". Let's start a new party so we can divide our vote and never win," he joked. It's going to unite and be stronger than ever before. Despite losing November's presidential election and being deeply criticised over the January riot, reports suggest Mr Trump remains extremely popular among his voting base.

In his CPAC speech, Mr Trump repeated his false claims that he lost November's election to the Democrats because of electoral fraud and he hinted at another run in , saying: "Actually you know they just lost the White House. Where do I vote? How do I register to vote? How do I request a ballot? When do I vote? When are polls open? Who Represents Me? Congress special elections Governors State executives State legislatures Ballot measures State judges Municipal officials School boards.

How do I update a page? His ascension to the leadership of the Republican Party has led the GOP to abandon its decades-long embrace of free trade, and to drop demands for cuts in Medicare and Social Security spending from its economic policy agenda. Trump has affirmed his rock-solid support for the pro-life movement having affirmed just the opposite 15 years ago but has also shifted the GOP to the center on LGBTQ rights issues, abandoning efforts to get gays out of the military or end same-sex marriage.

Fighting against people who want to try to win elections by abandoning unpopular hard-right stances is, quite literally, what the American Conservative Union was founded to do. And Trump, amid all his other antics and fireworks and controversies, has basically done just that.

The Trump boycott of represented a vestigial effort to bring back the CPAC of yore — the one whose attendees helped Reagan mount a primary challenge to incumbent President Gerald Ford — even though Trump the celebrity had long been welcome there.

But he won, and Republicans from Capitol Hill to the grassroots are thrilled about it. Key GOP-leaning interest groups are thrilled, of course, because Trump in office can give them the tax cuts and business-friendly regulation they crave. But CPAC, the ACU, and the conservative movement as a whole have always been about more than that kind of transactional interest group politics. Once upon a time, that was ideological rigor and principle. And in Trump, the CPAC faithful finally have a politician who embraces the values of conservative mass-market entertainment as the core of his politics.

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A four-day gathering of right-wing activists from across the United States, CPAC was founded in 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.

There has even been talk of the GOP splintering into rival factions. The latest speaker lineup has a distinctly Trumpian flavour as CPAC makes clear its allegiance to the 45th president.