Never Trump Whines About CPAC’s Pro-Economic Nationalist, Pro-Trump Agenda

Trump at CPAC
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Matthew Boyle
Washington, D.C.

Ahead of the all-important American Conservative Union (ACU) annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Never Trump leaders are out in full force whining about the pinnacle conservative movement event’s decidedly pro-Trump agenda this year.

The decision to focus on the future economic nationalist vision of the Republican Party on everything from trade to China to immigration and more, while bringing in many speakers, from President Donald Trump himself to Vice President Mike Pence on down through several members of his administration, “Mr. Brexit” Nigel Farage, and National Front leader Marion Le Pen has triggered some of the anti-Trump so-called conservatives. Notably not speaking, however, is newly announced Utah Senate candidate Mitt Romney–the former Massachusetts governor, failed 2012 GOP presidential nominee, and Never Trump leader from 2016. The completion of Trump’s economic nationalist takeover of the conservative movement and Republican Party has these Never Trumpers whining all over Twitter:

But Never Trumpers are, by definition, hypocritical:

Nonetheless, ACU chairman Matt Schlapp is not at all indulging the Never Trump losers who failed to stop President Trump from winning the election:

And President Trump himself is fighting back alongside Schlapp, too, tweeting that he is excited to speak there this week:

This year’s event, as Breitbart News reported in an exclusive interview with Schlapp, ACU executive Dan Schneider and ACU communications director Ian Walters will focus on the key steps the movement will take moving forward.

“We feel vindicated,” Schlapp told Breitbart News. “After all of the internal family squabbling in the conservative movement and Republican Party and country generally [over the past several years], we feel vindicated that CPAC has been a moment where we in a very public way can talk about our disagreements and it has resulted over the last three CPACs in us having more political success and policy success as a movement than we have ever had. That means this is a critical four days and that we have set up the debate and the discussions once again where we can do this in a way that will make us stronger, not weaker.”

Schneider added that this is the first time in history both the sitting president and vice president have spoken at CPAC in two consecutive years and that a record number of Cabinet officials from any administration ever are coming from the Trump administration this year.

“This is the first time in history that we’ve two years in a row have a president and vice president come two years in a row to CPAC,” Schneider said. “It’s also the first time we’ve had such a large percentage of the Cabinet come to CPAC. The prior record was in Reagan’s second term where about a third of the Cabinet spoke. This time, about half of the Cabinet will be at CPAC.”

CPAC has been running since the early 1970s.

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