There were dueling political conferences last weekend, and one of them was weighty on cash from globalists who hoped that Trump’s rival speech would get similar treatment to George Washington’s Farewell address. This was wishful thinking on the part of Never-Trumpers, as Trump instead regained control of the GOP.
Trump’s nearly two-hour speech at CPAC, which has long been the largest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives, was astonishing in its vigor and enthusiasm. He called for an end the failed influence on the Republican Party of the Bush family, Karl Rove and Paul Ryanwho brought the party to ruin until Trump rejuvenated it.
“This is the final battle,” Trump told the roaring crowd gathered for him in Maryland, just outside Washington, even though it is not Republican territory. Trump then outlined a series of pressing issues that form the political agenda for ordinary Americans in next year’s presidential election.
The contrast between Trump and the tired ideas of his media rivals could not be greater. The hedge fund executives and bogus traders who gathered at The Breakers, a swanky hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, are not the crowd that will be electing the next president or electing candidates in a toss-up ballot, and Trump’s rivals were wrong to see this as a path to the White House .
Ironically, it is Trump who has given prominence to the candidates seeking to replace him as the Republican presidential nominee, and their lack of gratitude towards him is reason enough to prefer Trump. Nikki Haley was appointed by Trump as ambassador to the United Nations, and CPAC conservatives attacked her when they turned against him.
In 2018, Trump secured the gubernatorial nomination for Ron DeSantis, defeating a better-known rival in Florida, where he won re-election in 2022, finishing second in overall votes behind the pro-Trump attorney general. DeSantis has yet to publicly criticize Trump, but in his 40-minute speech to globalists, he compared some Republicans to “potted plants” for allowing leftists to shape the debate.
This criticism cannot apply to Trumpwho likes a good fight. DeSantis appears to be imitating Trump’s style by not giving him credit.
Both Haley and DeSantis will head to Iowa, which remains the primary contest on the Republican side and will set the tone for the next primary. Trump enjoys overwhelming support among Republican officials in early primary states and met with Nevada state leaders as his rivals questioned before the globalists.
“I failed former Congressman David McIntosh and his globalist friends at Club for No Growth, who fought me all the way in 2016, then LOST, and then fought me again in the 2020 Senate races in Ohio, Alabama, North Carolina, New Hampshire and more and LOST AGAIN, now threatening to spend money against me,” Trump thundered. “No growth member knows that there will be REVENGE!!!” Trump added.
Trump is right about the Caucus for Growth, previously chaired by Pat Toomey, who was one of the few senators to vote in support President Trump’s vindictive second impeachment. Toomey then left the Senate and became director Apollo Global Managementa private equity firm profiting from globalism and the notorious interest tax loophole that Trump has tried to end, but Toomey he was a “star” in canning– the lobbyist told Bloomberg.
The Club for Growth lost many elections, and the expenditure on its campaign is too tiny to have a real impact. It spends less than half of 1% of total spending each election cycle, and Trump calls it the “No Growth Caucus, a gathering of political misfits, globalists and losers.”
Trump’s landslide victory in the CPAC poll garnered three times as many votes as distant runner-up Ron DeSantis and was Trump’s sixth record victory in the poll. That doubles President Ronald Reagan’s career wins in the same poll and surpasses the four wins of the last GOP presidential candidate before Trump, Mitt Romney.
Trump’s speech was reminiscent of the 1930 Declaration of Independence writing down complaints the American people against the globalists who have run our country into the ground. Even the New York Times appears to agree with Trump, warning against further drawing the United States into the NATO war in Ukraine.
Steve Bannon he joked on Trump’s rivals: “We don’t have time for on-the-job training.” Trump’s rivals look like seven dwarfs compared to him, and imagine what he can accomplish in a second term without Trump opponents like Ryan and Toomey on Capitol Hill.
Like General Douglas MacArthur vowing to return and then doing so to liberate the Philippines during World War II, Trump will return to the White House to finish the job he started.
John and Andy Schlafly are the sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924–2016) and run the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles writing and policy work.
