Sometimes being a leader means watching where the line is going, then rushing to get in front of it.

That’s been the approach of the Conservative Political Action Conference, the venerable gathering of right-wing activists that has in recent years turned into a full-throated MAGA celebration.

President Trump will address the faithful on Saturday, basking in adoration and unity that Ronald Reagan might have envied.

“People plan their CPAC schedule based on which day Trump is going to be here,” said Pam Roehl, 59, a retired real estate professional from Chicago. “When Trump’s around, he just Trumps everybody, you know, it changes the dynamic.”

Like so much of the rest of the political right — from Reaganism to the tea party movement — Mr. Trump has conquered CPAC, bringing it into the broader MAGA fold.

“Am I tired of winning? No, I want to keep on winning,” said Christopher Martin, 56, of Springfield, Ohio.

Attendees cheered Mr. Trump’s avalanche of executive actions that have buried his political opponents and sent resistors within the federal bureaucracy scurrying to the courts for a defense.

“And I love seeing President Trump in the White House again. I’m really excited for him and for what he is doing for our country,” said Tracey Delaney, 51, a federal contractor from Maryland.

It’s a remarkable turnabout for the Republican Party leader, who in 2015 was booed by the CPAC audience then chose to skip the gathering in 2016, later saying he figured he was “too controversial.”

CPAC has done reversals before. In 2008 it cheered Mitt Romney, viewed as the conservative alternative to then-Sen. John McCain in the GOP’s presidential nominating battle. Four years later, CPAC-goers derided Mr. Romney as a liberal amid an eclectic field of candidates.

Old CPAC hands say going MAGA has changed the flavor of the gathering itself.

It still serves as a rallying point for younger conservatives, helping link them to the broader movement. But gone are the days of policy fights between the flat taxers and the consumption tax acolytes. The values voters, defense hawks and libertarians don’t really battle it out in breakout sessions anymore, either.

“It has the feeling now of a farmer’s market of politics,” said one longtime CPAC goer. “The main function of it is to sell things to people.”

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said he wasn’t troubled by worries CPAC or the broader conservative movement has been subsumed by MAGA.

“The fact is the Republican Party needed a whole bunch of reforming,” he said. “Like the idea that we had to take controversial subjects and not talk about them and that would be the way forward. Trump had the opposite view, which is, take the controversial things [and] tell people your view.”

He said he sees CPAC now — at least the D.C. incarnation — as more a matter of “conversations” than speeches. But he did lament the disappearance of the free-wheeling debates.

“I think it’s because of social media,” he said. “Everyone seems very nervous to do a debate and get caught in a bad moment, and then that becomes viral.”

For now, though, that leaves Mr. Trump as CPAC’s unifying force.

Which is a problem for four years from now, when Mr. Trump walks out of the White House.

“I don’t know who can match that personal appeal of the president, but I’m thankful. I’m appreciative that he’s made the conservative movement cool again. He’s made it popular, kind of like Ronald Reagan did in the late 70s and 80s,” Mr. Martin said.

Dennis Mayo, 75, a retired rancher from California, said he’s a lifelong Democrat but found himself drawn to Mr. Trump because he delivered common-sense solutions.

He said it’s not that CPAC has gone MAGA — “that’s a liberal talking point,” he said — but rather that the Biden administration exposed the paucity of Democrats’ answers.

“The public had to see that clear. I think Trump is a recipient of the fact that the Biden administration was so glaringly wrong,” he said.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.