If CPAC 2023 proved anything, it was that Donald Trump still has his dedicated fans – from Brick Suit Guy (a smart, nice dude who fully absolutely gets the wackiness of his act) to a family wearing shirts bearing one letter each of the ex-prezzy’s name to the scores regular folks who adore him, the president remains beloved. They lined up and waited for hours to see him speak again, and he delivered again – his never-ending speech (heavy on policy but DeSantis-free) was generally well-received. Even the DeSantis-curious qualified their moving-on with respect for the accomplishments of Trump’s first three years and agreed that the Florida governor should have shown up and thrown down. Combine all that with a triumphant spin through East Palestine (the best day of Donald Trump’s ex-presidency) and at least some surging poll numbers, and it’s been a pretty good couple weeks for the Bad Orange Man.
But success at the conservative summit is not necessarily the same as success out in the general election, or even out in the Republican primary. CPAC was a little smaller this year volume-wise, probably due to being back in DC and the Biden economy, but the dedicated base folks were there. There weren’t quite as many students in their elephant skirts or awkward blazers, or quite as many dudes in tri-corner hats – though of course, there were still dudes in tri-corner hats – but it was a good gathering, and people were happy and motivated. There was very little dooming and a lot of excitement over the primary. The enemy regime media, which came in for plenty of contempt, will try and have you think that it was sparsely attended (there were still a ton of people) so the conservative movement is therefore broken and demoralized. That contempt was expressed during the panel I shared with Townhall’s own Larry O’Connor, Brent Bozell, and the great @LibsofTikTok. My personal CPAC highlight (besides, my informal conclave with super-lawyer Ron Coleman) was being accused by leftist media of joking from the stage about hunting reporters for sport. Yeah, “joking.”
There were fewer leftist reporters there, because CPAC is biased and just wouldn’t give them credentials. If you watched the outside coverage, you would think that there was no one there and that’s nonsense. In this economy, it’s a miracle to get this many folks together. The goal of the garbage media was to present a broken and hopeless conservative movement, and it’s fine if that’s what they think. Never interrupt the enemy when it is making a mistake.
The people are still annoyed about coming up short in 2022, but they’re focused on 2024. At CPAC, the majority focused on Donald Trump, as you would expect. They would’ve liked to see Ron DeSantis, who wants to go to different events in different places. However, what happened to Nikki Haley probably makes him confident that he made the right decision. Haley, who could not be squishier, gave one of her “I love America, and I don’t care who gets mad about that” speeches, then came outside and was surrounded by a bunch of people screaming “Trump, Trump, Trump,” and, allegedly, some not so pleasant things. This kind of jerky behavior is obnoxious, particularly because it forces me to defend Nikki Haley. Stop making me defend Nikki Haley. If you’re going to do something that’s going to make me defend Nikki Haley, don’t do that thing. This is a moral guideline that you should apply throughout your daily life.
Mike Pompeo showed up and gave a speech that talked about things beside foreign policy, which was good. It was well received. Vivek Ramaswamy showed up and people reacted by wondering why the hell he’s running for president instead of senator or somewhere. Ted Cruz showed up and was not running for president, which is a terrific decision – he should make sure he keeps his Texas seat.
But it was really all about Trump, and the vibe was that the president was ascendant. He won the CPAC poll by a mile. There are a lot of polls out there, national ones in particular, where he looks like he’s doing pretty well. There are a lot of state polls where he’s not winning, and that’s a problem since you don’t run in a national primary but in state primaries. His numbers in California, for instance, are terrible. While California is blue blue blue, it will still send a bunch of delegates to the Republican national convention, and right now Trump’s behind in the Golden State.
This race is not done, not by a long shot, and it is not guaranteed that we will see Nominee Trump 3.0. But it is equally clear that we could. His support is strong, and even the people who back someone else – meaning Ron DeSantis, since everybody else right now is just a footnote – respect much of what Trump did while pointing out some of the bonehead maneuvers he made. And for the most part, they are tired of his stupid social media antics, but after eight years if you think you can have Trump without stupid social media antics, I have a California high-speed rail system that I’d like to sell you.
Trump can still win the nomination. There’s no doubt about that. Whether he will win the nomination is an open question, and people are looking forward to the primary. They aren’t afraid of a little head-butting and a bit of battle – that’s why we have primaries. Even most of the Trump ones, though not the trumpiest of the Trumpians, dig DeSantis – every once in a while, you encounter some doofus babbling about how DeSantis is a “globalist” and then he gets really puzzled when you ask him what he thinks a “globalist” actually is.
DeSantis should show up next year when the primary is in full swing and that should be the ultimate Octagon cage match. By then, the asterisk candidates should be cleared out – for example, Nikki Haley will have suffered her humiliations in Iowa and New Hampshire and ended her extended vice presidency audition. I am looking forward to CPAC 2024 – two men go in, one comes out.
Every political discussion of any sort that does not address rampant electoral fraud that nullifies the electoral process is nothing but total BS. The truth is that the entity formerly known as the USA that operated under a constitutional framework that included transfers of power through regular elections is dead and gone. We now live under a tyranny of illegitimate rulers installed through criminal fraud, yet the people sleepwalk onward totally oblivious to the new reality of the collapse of the American Empire that we witness every day. It makes no difference what political figures prance about at political soirees like CPAC. Voting itself is a sham and a lie in this clown world we all inhabit.
I have mixed feelings about the writer. I don’t like his slimy comments about President Trump and felt he must have felt forced to say them. I am unclear why he is writing for the Front Page Magazine. We have so few Conservative papers, magazines, and virtually no mainstream media support I question why This Horowitz group would not allow us to have at least one supportive magazine without the Democrat nastiness that we see 24/7. So discouraging.
Schlichter is one the biggest Trump rear end kissers in conservative media.
But even he realizes Trump is damaged goods in the coming election.
You simply can’t stand to see someone look at your orange idol honestly for a change.
Correct. I don’t know how Trump can win because the 2020 fraud was never dealt with. Example: Wisconsin has seven million people on the voter rolls with a population of four million.
What a remarkably nasty article toward President Trump.
He is the favorite in the context of the last seven years. Context is everything to the American people. To think of a Trump vs DeSantis debate as a cage match is to hope the Democrats win. That’s a leftwing Democrat BLM Antifa Uniparty dream.
Awful no writing. Nasty intent,
Trump is the best President anybody alive today has ever seen, and there is no close second…
Anyone, and especially professional windbag pundits scraping the barrell for something, anything to write about, who claim to have some peculiar problem with Trump’s use of social media, are unworthy of being taken in any way remotely seriously…
DeSantis is 4 orders of magnitude beneath Trump’s league altogether, there is simply no comparison possible… Trump is a geo-political genius with no parallel in the contemporary world… Trump’s Economic Nationalism/Peace Through Strength/American Greatness, Past, Present, and Future agenda is the future–the ONLY future, and he is the only man with the genuine understanding, committment, fortitude and vision to make it reality…
Some people think DeSantis is a globalist because he is being backed by RINO’s/globalist’s such as Jeb Bush and the Bush family. DeSantis isn’t independently wealthy where he can fund his own campaign. He needs help from donors. Many of which are RINO’s.
I like DeSantis as he’s been an outstanding governor for Fl, but can he fight the rabid Leftist’s on a national scale? Being a governor and president are two different animals.
Yes, DeSantis has done a remarkable job as governor, for the most part, but some of the moneyed people who back him give me pause.
DeSantis was a legal advisor to SEAL Team One.
Most real soldiers who saw, and lived through war do not speak of it. Sometimes torture is justified.
Ha, ha, CPAC has turned into a collection of various Trump nutters. But even a Trump lover like Schlichter is having his doubts about Trump winning the national election.
Because he can’t. He only has his cultist nutters, and that’s not nearly enough to win over the majority of voters who look a lot less kindly on Trump after his shenanigans post-2020 election than they did before.
And he lost the popular vote by seven million to a living corpse.
This time it would probably be closer to twenty million or more.
Time to ditch Trump friends. Actually, he should be ashamed to walk around in public after his actions after he LEGITIMATELY!!! lost to Biden.
So among other things face reality and GROW THE HELL UP!!!
DeSantis is the future. Or some other candidate not named Donald Trump.
The fact that Trump ,a sitting President, lost a Presidential election to a wiser,morally competent opponent,and failed to overturn the election by fraud and Insurrection proves the strength of America,her Democratic Institutions,and the authority and loyalty of her Police and National Guard. Just sayin’.
God Bless America and all who serve.
Mr. Schlicter,
Possibly you are uninformed regarding Gov. DeSantis and POTUS Trump.
If you need reminding, POTUS Trump is a numbers-cruncher who had a stellar record for taking care of the business end of this Nation. That is all we needed.,…to clean up from the previous trash.
We did not need and altar boy, just a Patriot whose belief is America First. Simple selling point.
Ron DeSantis would not handle the world stage as well as POTUS Trump either.
Also, two big negatives about DeSantis: He has sold out to RINOS, and is going against the man (Trump) without whom he would not have been governor.
A word to the wise, regarding POTUS Trump….. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
If you’re too young to know what that means, look it up.
Pay no attention to who is giving money to Ron NOW. It is the primary season and the RINO’s and Trump haters know only Ron could “possibly” beat Trump – so they are giving him money. You don’t think Desantis knows this?
I don’t think he will run, but if he does, he will have to convince us through the primary process to give him our vote – or NOT. Ron is still solidly on our side.
P.S.
California is not blue, blue, blue. Only the large metropolises. Rural, agricultural – not so much.
Mr. Schlicter, you do seem uninformed.
Most real soldiers who saw, and lived through war do not speak of it. Sometimes torture is justified.