On Feb. 22, President Donald Trump delivered an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Oxon Hill, MD. Some call the 47th president Trump 2.0, and there is some truth to that. The man seems less somber these days and less bitter – though clearly, he hasn’t forgotten the years of negative press and lawfare that made him that way. This was a cheerful, confident, determined, and very much in-control Trump. He seems more sure of himself than during his first White House term. But perhaps the one thing that confirms the dominant return of his MAGA movement wasn’t anything he said, but what CPAC attendees indicated they want going forward.
Though his tone was light, the president did not hold back when recounting how the previous administration targeted him and his followers. “This was a very vicious regime,” Trump told his audience. “You know, I was put under investigation more so than the late great Alphonse Capone.” Whether that phrasing was a deliberate grenade thrown at the press or not – and, knowing Trump, it’s hard to say – the legacy media will, no doubt, drive themselves into a frenzy over his use of the word “great” to describe America’s most infamous mobster.
“These people are sick. They’re sick. They’re bad people,” Trump went on. He dwelt on what he and many others saw as the worst abuse of power during the Joe Biden years. “They weaponized government. I pardoned hundreds and hundreds of Biden’s political prisoners, including Christians, pro-life activists, and the J6 hostages, who were treated terribly for years.”
He wasn’t done there, reminding CPAC that he had revoked the security clearances of “non-patriots” like Jake Sullivan, John Brennan, and James Clapper, all former federal government officials and Deep State operatives who conspired with Democrats and against Trump.
The president seems eager to ensure people don’t see this as him taking revenge. “These were bad people, and I do that because this should never be allowed to happen again. What happened to me in [the Biden] administration, what happened on J6, what happened on all of the things that were so bad, should never, ever be allowed to happen again.”
Showing a sign that he has grown as a politician and knows when to get off the subject of Donald Trump, he then quickly switched to his renaming of the Gulf of America.
Beyond Trump’s speech on that same day was the announcement of the always anticipated presidential CPAC straw poll. Who had attendees chosen to succeed Trump in 2028? The answer reflects the now-evident reality that the MAGA movement has effectively become a party within a party. These America First conservative populists, with a definite small L libertarian streak, have, one might say, used the Republican Party as a host. The straw poll indicates that CPAC is now very much MAGA with very few establishment Republicans:
JD Vance – 61%
Steve Bannon – 12%
Ron DeSantis – 7%
Marco Rubio – 3%
Elise Stefanik – 3%
Donald Trump Jr. – 2%
Tulsi Gabbard – 2%
Vivek Ramaswamy – 2%
Sarah Huckabee Sanders – 1%
Rick Scott – 1%
Kristi Noem – 1%
Nikki Haley – 1%
Greg Abbott – 0%
Undecided – 4%
Announcing that Vice President JD Vance had come out on top in the poll, Jim McLaughlin, president of McLaughlin & Associates Polls, said, “And why? Because he’s viewed as the closest thing to Donald Trump.”
It is indeed telling that all the contenders in the top half of the final table are, by and large, considered Trump “loyalists” or, at least, staunch allies. By contrast, the names at the foot of the list – perhaps except for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem – are considered more establishment Republican.
While everyone is mostly watching Trump and his government efficiency czar, Elon Musk, slashing and burning their way through the bloated behemoth that is the federal government, the 47th president is laying the foundation of his legacy. That legacy – just as a young up-and-coming actor by the name of Jussie Smollett once imagined himself doing – runs through MAGA country.