Crowds at the Conservative Political Action Conference had a distinctly international flair this week, as foreign guests and leaders from around the world poured into the yearly event, including two sitting presidents and a former British Prime Minister.
Brexit boss Nigel Farage — a veteran of more than a decade of CPACS — was received warmly by the CPAC audience and proved even more popular at evening cocktail parties.
We “need strong leaders,” Farage railed during his speech, adding “we need Trump back in the White House.”
“What we’ve been defending are the basic concepts of the family, of the nation,” he said, according to a report.
Former Prime Minister Lis Truss was on hand through the conference, hawking her new book “Ten Years to Save the West” — and sounding off about how the British deep state doomed her famously brief time at 10 Downing Street.
“I faced the most almighty backlash for those conservative policies,I tried to put in place, from the usual suspects in the media, from the usual suspends in the corporate world, but also people who were meant to work for the government,” she told attendees during her remarks Friday.
New Argentinian President Javier Milei was also slated to speak at the conference.
El Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele earned cheers from the crowds when he urged conservatives to “fight” for their beliefs.
“The global elites, they hate our success and they fear yours,” Bukele said Thursday. “Put up a fight because in the end it will be worth it. You will have your country back.”
Dragos Burgheliam, chief of the Transylvanian chapter of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians attending his first CPAC, said the growing list of global challenges would require the right to work together.
“There have been so many global changes in recent years, with the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Israel and I think more and more people and nationals are seeing that there is a need for conservative unity worldwide,” he told The Post. “CPAC provides a great opportunity to meet and talk to each other.”
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While foreigns flocked, CPAC attendance was noticeably down. An exhibition hall where MAGA merchants hawked products was half empty. Large former sponsors like Turning Point USA and Fox News were missing in action.
Many attendees spoke privately amongst themselves about the change in the once bustling event, believing the ongoing fallout from sexual assault allegations against CPAC boss Matt Schlaap had spooked many one-time conference participants. A lawsuit against Schlaap is ongoing.
“I think it has to do with that,” one CPAC goer whispered to The Post.