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      Calls to can Goya Foods grow after CEO repeats Trump's election lies

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      Calls for a boycott of Goya beans, chickpeas and other foodstuffs have grown louder after chief executive Robert Unanue made a series of false claims about the presidential election in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Florida on Sunday.Unanue has previously courted controversy with praise for Donald Trump, which last year prompted Ivanka Trump to pose, infamously, with a can of Goya beans.Onstage in Orlando, Unanue called Donald Trump “the real, legitimate and still actual president of the United States”.He also falsely claimed the presidential election that Trump lost conclusively to Joe Biden and the state contest in Georgia, which Biden won narrowly, were “not legitimate”, and claimed mail-in ballots were fraudulent.“We still have faith,” Unanue said, “that the majority of the people of the United States voted for the president … I think a great majority of the people in the United States voted for President Trump, and even a few Democrats.”Biden won more than 81m votes, or 51.3% of the total cast, to more than 74m for Trump. The Democrat won the electoral college 306-232, a margin Trump called a landslide when it was in his favour over Hillary Clinton.Trump has continued to lie about the election, in January inciting supporters to attack the US Capitol in a bid to stop the ratification of results. That led to his second impeachment, which ended with his second acquittal. The former president repeated his lies about the election in his own speech at CPAC, on Sunday night.Unanue has previously been censured by his company for speaking in support of Trump. In January, owner Andy Unanue told the New York Post: “Bob does not speak for Goya Foods when he speaks on TV. The family has diverse views on politics, but politics is not part of our business. Our political point of views are irrelevant.”Robert Unanue said then: “I don’t believe I should speak politically or in a faith-based manner on behalf of the company. But I leave open the possibility of speaking on behalf of myself.”After his remarks at CPAC on Sunday, the journalist Soledad O’Brien tweeted: “Folks at Goya should be embarrassed.”The speech also prompted renewed calls for a boycott of Goya products.“No more chickpeas from Goya for me,” tweeted one famous consumer, Joy Behar, a cohost of The View on ABC. More

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      Donald Trump hints at run for president in 2024 – video

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      Former US president Donald Trump has hinted at a possible run for president again in 2024 during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC] in Florida. Trump attacked president Joe Biden and repeated his fraudulent claims that he won the 2020 election in his first major appearance since leaving the White House nearly six weeks ago. ‘Who knows, who knows, I may even decide to beat them for a third time,’ he said.
      CPAC: pent-up Trump denounces Biden at rightwing summit More

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      Trump grasps for relevance in first post-presidential speech at CPAC

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      An embittered Donald Trump has used his first post-presidential speech to propagate the lie of a “rigged” election in 2020 and hint that he might try to beat Democrats “for a third time” in 2024.Grasping for continued relevance, Trump returned to his political comfort zone by fearmongering about immigrants and unleashing angry tirades against Joe Biden, his Republican critics and the media.The twice-impeached former president, greeted by wild cheers at the biggest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives in Orlando, Florida, falsely asserted: “Illegal aliens and dead people are voting, and many other horrible things are happening that are too voluminous to even mention, but people know.“I mean, it’s being studied and the level of dishonesty is not to be believed. We have a very sick and corrupt electoral process that must be fixed immediately. This election was rigged and the supreme court and other courts didn’t want to do anything about it.”The crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where the “big lie” took root and flourished over the past four days, chanted: “You won! You won!”Trump replied bluntly: “We did.”The 45th president spent two months falsely claiming that last November’s election was stolen, culminating in a deadly insurrection by his supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January.In fact Biden won by a margin of 7m votes and state officials, courts and Trump’s own attorney general found no significant irregularities.Trump criticised judges for not having “the guts” to intervene. And earlier, in an apparent ad lib, he made clear that he still does not accept the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.“Actually, as you know they just lost the White House,” he said of Democrats before hinting that he could seek revenge. “But who knows, who knows? I may even decide to beat them for a third time.” It was typical Trump showmanship and the room erupted in cheers and applause.He went on to call for sweeping electoral reforms including the abolition of early voting and tougher voter rules, widely seen as measures that would have a disproportionate impact on people of colour.Trump, who launched his first campaign for president in June 2015 with racist statements about Mexican immigrants and the need for a border wall, defaulted to that issue as he fiercely denounced Biden.“We all knew that the Biden administration was going to be bad – but none of us imagined just how bad they would be, and how far left they would go … Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.He continued: “In just one short month we have gone from ‘America first’ to ‘America last’,” citing a “new and horrible crisis on our southern border … Biden’s radical immigration policies aren’t just illegal – they are immoral, they are heartless, and they are a betrayal of our nation’s core values”.He also demanded the that his successor open schools despite the coronavirus pandemic. Trump said: “The Biden administration is actually bragging about the education they are providing to migrant children on the border, while at the same, time millions of American children are having their futures destroyed by Joe Biden’s anti-science school closures.”Wearing blue suit, white shirt and red tie, Trump walked on stage just before 5pm to a standing ovation from hundreds of supporters bunched together indoors with few face masks at what looked dangerously like a coronavirus super-spreader event.Trump began: “Hello, CPAC. Do you miss me yet?” He pledged: “I want you to know that I am going to continue to fight right by your side,” but made clear he would do so as the standard bearer of the Republican party. “It’s going to unite and be stronger than ever before. I am not starting a new party. That was fake news.”He went on to call for a purge of the Republican critics who voted for his impeachment after the US Capitol mob violence, including “warmonger” Liz Cheney, the No 3 Republican in the House of Representatives. He insisted: “The Republican party is united. The only division is between a handful of Washington DC establishment political hacks and everybody else all over the country.” Trump said he would support “smart, tough” Republican leaders.In a comeback speech that lasted an hour and a half there were many familiar lines from old speeches, including tirades against the the Iran nuclear deal, “forever wars”, renewable energy, big tech companies and the Washington establishment. But he also found some new prejudices to flaunt, with misinformed transphobia.After using his arms to imitate a weightlifter, he said: “Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males. It’s not good for women, it’s not good for women’s sports which worked so long and so hard to get to where they are.”Trump rounded off with another tease about his future ambitions, telling the crowd: “With your help we will take back the House, we will win the Senate and then a Republican president will make a triumphant return to the White House. And I wonder who that will be. I wonder who that will be. Who, who, who will that be? I wonder.”Earlier on Sunday, the Republican congressman Jim Jordan said of him: “The leader of the conservative movement, the leader of the ‘American first’ movement, the leader of the Republican party and, I hope, on January 20, 2025, he is once again the leader of our great country.”But the annual CPAC straw poll found that only 55% of attendees want Trump to be the Republican nominee in 2024, ahead of Florida governor Ron DeSantis at 21% (the conference is taking place in Florida), South Dakota governor Kristi Noem at 4% and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley at 3%.Evan McMullin, executive director of Stand Up Republic and a former presidential candidate, tweeted in response: “It’s still ‘his party,’ but there’s a growing number ready for something new.” More

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      CPAC: Hyatt Hotels says stage resembling Nazi rune is 'abhorrent'

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      The Hyatt Hotels Corporation called symbols of hate “abhorrent” on Sunday after the design of a stage at the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at one of its hotels drew comparisons to a Norse rune used by Nazis during the second world warHigh-profile Republicans including former president Donald Trump were attending the four-day event in Orlando, Florida, as conflict raged between Trump allies and establishment politicians trying to distance the party from him.A photo of the CPAC stage went viral on social media on Saturday, with thousands of Twitter users sharing posts comparing its distinctive design to an othala rune, also known as an odal rune, one of many ancient European symbols that Nazis adopted to “reconstruct a mythic ‘Aryan’ past”, according to the Anti-Defamation League.The ceiling of the conference room featured a lighting display in the same shape as the stage, according to Reuters photographs.Hyatt said all aspects of conference logistics, including the stage design, were managed by the American Conservative Union, which organized the conference.The comparisons were “outrageous and slanderous”, Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, said on Saturday. He added the organization had a “long standing commitment to the Jewish community” and that the conference featured several Jewish speakers.In its statement on Sunday, Hyatt said: “We take the concern raised about the prospect of symbols of hate being included in the stage design at CPAC 2021 very seriously as all such symbols are abhorrent and unequivocally counter to our values as a company.”Some Trump supporters who launched a deadly insurrection against the US Capitol on 6 January carried Confederate flags, which many Americans see as a symbol of oppression and slavery. Extremism experts said some of the rioters were members of white nationalist groups.The rune was seen at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that saw violent fights with counter-protesters and one civil rights activist killed when a neo-fascist drove his car into the crowd.Neo-Nazis have been using the Odal Rune sign in place of the swastika for several years.CPAC’s stage is the same shape.The pic on the left is from Charlotteville in 2017. pic.twitter.com/6Ylt2U4U3C— Kimberley Johnson (@AuthorKimberley) February 27, 2021
      Joe Biden cited that event and Trump’s assessment at the time that there were “very fine people on both sides” as a factor in his motivation for running for the Democratic nomination, winning the presidency in November 2020.Trump’s presence has dominated this year’s CPAC, with his supporters parading a larger-than-life golden statue of him through the lobby of the hotel.With Reuters More

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      CPAC: pent-up Trump set to denounce Biden at rightwing summit

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      Donald Trump, the former US president, was on Sunday set to mark his attempted political comeback by denouncing Joe Biden for “the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history”.Trump was due to make his first speech since leaving the White House at the rightwing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, where an effusive reception was guaranteed.The twice impeached ex-president was poised to unleash pent-up frustration after two months of social media silence – he was banned by Facebook and Twitter for incendiary comments – and just a handful of TV interviews.According to excerpts shared with the Guardian by Trump’s post-presidential office, he planned to make clear he intends to remain a political force by declaring: “I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over.”“We all knew that the Biden administration was going to be bad – but none of us imagined just how bad they would be, and how far left they would go… Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.And adding: “Biden’s radical immigration policies aren’t just illegal – they are immoral, they are heartless, and they are a betrayal of our nation’s core values.”Trump was also intending to call on Biden to reopen schools despite ongoing safety fears due to the coronavirus pandemic. And planned to present himself as the standard bearer of a Republican party that defends “working American families – of every race, every color, and every creed”.The former president was expected to invoke his “America first” nationalist agenda by insisting: “We believe in standing up to China, shutting down outsourcing, bringing back our factories and supply chains, and ensuring that America, not China, dominates the future.”Despite the recent bipartisan vote at his impeachment trial, where he escaped conviction, Trump claims the Republican party is “united”, according to the excerpts. “The only division is between a handful of Washington DC establishment political hacks, and everybody else all over the country.”Most commentators expect Trump, aged 74, to leave open the possibility that he will run for re-election in 2024 without making a definitive commitment. He has remained a looming presence at CPAC, with speaker after speaker pledging fealty to him and his “Make America great again” agenda, while a golden calf-style idol in his image was even paraded around the convention halls.Numerous speakers and panels have also indulged and promoted Trump’s brazen lie that the election was stolen from him. Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow who is facing a $1.3bn defamation lawsuit from a voting-machine maker over his false conspiracy theories, was seen giving media interviews at the event.Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, which runs the conference, claimed: “CPAC is your first opportunity to see what actually happened on election day. And there was widespread voter fraud in way too many states, most especially in big cities run by the Democrat machine. That is fact and we gave you evidence to underscore that fact.”Tom Fitton, president of the rightwing group Judicial Watch, told attendees: “On election day, President Trump had the votes to win the presidency. These vote totals were changed because of unprecedented and extraordinary counting after election day. Judicial Watch has long warned of the chaos and increased risk of fraud from recklessly mailing one hundred million ballots and ballot applications.”Such claims have repeatedly been proved false. Mail-in voting surged because of the coronavirus pandemic but state officials, including Republicans, reported no significant irregularities. The former president and his allies lost more than 60 legal challenges, including those weighed by Trump-appointed judges. Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, dismissed the fraud allegations.For all the talk of party unity, CPAC was notable for the absence of former vice-president Mike Pence, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and other leading Republicans.On Sunday Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, insisted that CPAC does not represent the entire Republican party. “Now, if we plan to win in [midterm elections in] 2022 and [the presidential election] in 2024, we have to listen to the voters, not just those who really like President Trump, but also those who perhaps are less sure,” he told CNN’s State of the Union programme. “If we idolise one person, we will lose. And that’s kind of clear from the last election.”The watchdog Accountable.US condemned CPAC for putting Trump on a pedestal despite his role in inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January. Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said: “When Donald Trump is given a hero’s welcome at CPAC, it will be the largest gathering of sedition supporters since the Capitol riot itself.“The more evidence that emerges of Trump’s guilt, the more conservative leaders rally behind him. Trump lit the match of insurrection, and CPAC leaders would obviously rather keep stoking the fire for as long as possible.”Back at the conference earlier, Robert Unanue, the chief executive of Goya Foods, told attendees: “It’s just an honour to be here. But my biggest honour today is gonna be that – I think we’re gonna be on the same stage – as, in my opinion, the real, the legitimate, and the still actual president of the United States, Donald J Trump.” More

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      CPAC: Trump to make first post-White House speech at rightwing summit

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      Sign up for the Guardian’s First Thing newsletterDonald Trump returns to the political stage on Sunday determined to show that he is still a major force in America and ready to purge his critics within the Republican party.In his first post-presidential speech, Trump will address the biggest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives in Orlando, Florida, immediately after a poll is expected to show he is most attendees’ first choice for the Republican nomination in 2024.“We’re looking forward to Sunday,” Trump’s son, Don Jr, told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “I imagine it will not be what we call a low energy speech, and I assure you that it will solidify Donald Trump and all of your feelings about the Maga [Make America great again] movement as the future of the Republican party.”CPAC has always offered a glimpse of tectonic plates shifting beneath the conservative movement. In 2009 the conference disavowed the presidency of George W Bush, which had led to the Iraq war and ended in financial catastrophe. In 2016 it was wary of Trump, who cancelled his speech, but a year later it had fully embraced him and his administration.In 2021 the conference seems to offer proof that the Republican party is no longer in the political mainstream but has veered into far-right extremism. Speakers have raged against “cancel culture”, radical socialism and “big tech” companies while pushing Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud and denying he has any culpability for the subsequent insurrection at the US Capitol.CPAC is also working doubly hard to shore up Trump’s position as Republican standard bearer even after he lost the trifecta of White House, House of Representatives and Senate and was twice impeached.Matt Schlapp, the president of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC, told the Washington Post: “Even though Donald Trump is a one-term president, there’s this feeling among Republicans that he was a huge, smashing success.“That doesn’t mean that every moment of every day, of every news cycle, was pleasurable. What it means is that from a policy perspective, he basically ticked through the list of things that he said he would do.”The cult of personality has manifested itself in Trump bumper stickers, hats, T-shirts, face masks and other merchandise with slogans such as “Trump 2024” and “Miss me yet?”, as well as a giant gold-colored statue of the 45th president dressed in a jacket, red tie and Stars-and-Stripes boxing shorts and wielding a star wand.Speaker after speaker has ostentatiously pledged their loyalty, implying that the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Ted Cruz, a Republican senator for Texas, told attendees on Friday: “Let me tell you something: Donald Trump ain’t going anywhere.”The posture has ensured that Trump’s small band of foes within the Republican party has been targeted for criticism just as much as the man who beat him last November, Democratic president Joe Biden.Trump Jr warned against any return to an old Republican party beholden to special interests by singling out Liz Cheney, the daughter of Bush’s vice-president Dick Cheney and the No 3 Republican in the House. Cheney voted for Trump’s impeachment after the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol and criticised his plan to appear at CPAC.Cheney, Trump Jr argued, “is the leader of that failed movement and, if we want to go back to losing, if we want to go back to an America last policy, we should be following that,” he said. “But I don’t, and I don’t think anyone in this room does either.”Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman who held a rally in Cheney’s home state of Wyoming to demand her resignation, earned cheers CPAC by asserting: “If Liz Cheney were on this stage today, she would get booed off of it!”He continued: “What does that say? The leadership of our party is not found in Washington DC. You are the energy, we are America, that’s why they’re in the eight square miles of Washington DC, and we’re here in the sunshine state of Florida.”Florida is also now Trump’s home as, since departing the White House, he has kept a surprisingly low profile at his luxurious Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. He spends most mornings on his nearby golf course, according to a CNN report, and claims he has increased his drive by 20 yards.Many at CPAC have perpetuated and promoted Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, arguing that they justified new restrictions on voting. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri proudly defended his vote to challenge the electoral college result just hours after the riot at the Capitol.“I was called a traitor,” he recalled to a noisy ovation. “I was called a seditionist. The radical left said … I should be expelled from the United States Senate. Well, as I said a moment ago, I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here. I’m going to stand up for you.”Absences at CPAC are also a political barometer. Mike Pence, the former vice-president targeted by the pro-Trump mob on 6 January, declined an invitation, although organisers insist he remains on friendly terms with his old boss. There is also no sign of Cheney, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, or former presidential nominee Mitt Romney.But whether Trump, 74, can or will seek to regain power in 2024 remains far from certain. This week the Manhattan district attorney’s office in New York took possession of eight years’ worth of his tax returns and a mountain of other financial data as it conducts a criminal investigation into his business empire.Joe Walsh, a Trump critic and former Republican congressman, predicted a rousing reception for him on Sunday but said of 2024: “I think he’ll string everybody along. It all depends on his health. Is he in jail? Is he a gazillion dollars in debt? But assuming he isn’t indicted, if he wants to run, it’s his. I don’t think any Republican will challenge him.” More

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      Republicans push 'blue-collar comeback' – but is the party a true friend of the worker?

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      Amid the resurrection of “the big lie” about an election stolen from Donald Trump, another deceptive theme has emerged at this weekend’s rightwing gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference: Republicans as the true party of the blue-collar worker.
      It was a concept promoted variously over CPAC’s first two days by, among others, a multimillionaire former governor who made a fortune in healthcare; the son of Donald Trump, who lives in his own exclusive Florida club; and two firebrand US senators with law degrees from Ivy League universities who oppose a universal hike in the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
      One of them, the Texas senator Ted Cruz, earlier this month flew his family to a sunshine vacation at a five-star resort in Mexico to escape the deadly winter blast back in his home state. At CPAC he asserted his alignment with America’s working men and women.
      “The Republican party is not the party just of the country clubs; the Republican party is the party of steel workers and construction workers, and pipeline workers and taxi cab drivers, and cops and firefighters, and waiters and waitresses, and the men and women with calluses on their hands who are working for this country,” Cruz told the nation’s biggest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives, just days after cutting short his Cancun holiday when the scandal came to light.
      “That is our party, and these deplorables are here to stay.”
      The CPAC positioning to try to represent the Republican party as a champion of the working class comes as Democratic president Joe Biden’s effort to raise the minimum wage faces significant congressional roadblocks, including opposition from many senior Republican figures.
      Cruz, a Harvard-educated lawyer and the beneficiary of substantial corporate campaign donations, at least until many halted contributions in the wake of the 6 January Capitol riots, is a long-time opponent of what he has called the “bad policy” concept of a minimum wage, and has said legislation to enforce it would “kill American jobs”.
      Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator who last month joined his fellow Trump loyalist Cruz in attempting to block the certification of Biden’s victory, was another prominent CPAC speaker espousing working-class roots while opposing the new president’s wage proposals.
      “Where I come from in Missouri, I grew up in rural Missouri, [a] small town right in the middle of Missouri, it’s a working-class town full of good folks, working hard to make it every day,” said Hawley, a Yale law school graduate.
      “And I can just tell you, where I grew up, we believe in citizenship because we’re proud of it. We’re proud to be Americans,” he added in an address condemning “powerful corporations” and “oligarchs” he accused of imposing a “radical left agenda” on the United States.
      Hawley, considered a possible candidate in the race for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination if Trump does not run again, has also suffered corporate backlash for his support of the former president’s election lies. He proposed legislation this month that would exempt small businesses from paying their employees a “burdensome” minimum wage.
      On Saturday at CPAC, the fealty continued to Trump, who was honored at the conference venue this week by the installation of a large, gaudy statue that sparked the Twitter hashtag #goldencalf.
      “The blue-collar comeback was the theme of our administration,” the Republican Tennessee senator Bill Hagerty said in a panel discussion on industry during which he praised “President Trump’s leadership” for job growth.
      KT McFarland, a conservative commentator who was briefly Trump’s deputy national security adviser at the start of his administration, said she had a telephone call with the former president on Friday night in which he allegedly outlined the theme of his scheduled CPAC speech on Sunday.
      “I think that Donald Trump is not finished with this revolution,” she said, describing how she called his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach and claiming Trump himself picked up the phone.
      “He said: ‘I’m going to talk about the future. I’m going to talk about how we win in 2022, how we take the White House back in 2024.’”
      Trump’s son, Donald Jr, told CPAC attendees earlier in the gathering that Biden’s relaxation of Trump-era immigration measures and reopening of camps for migrant youth would affect the very blue-collar workers Republicans are attempting to covet.
      “Where is the outrage about an asinine immigration policy that is encouraging people to bring children unaccompanied and otherwise into a country?” he said. More

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      ‘The base is solidly behind him’: Trumpism expected to thrive at CPAC

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      Ronald Solomon spent five days making the 2,300-mile drive from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Orlando, Florida, where he will sell about 75 different hat designs, 15 types of flag, 10 T-shirt designs and a range of eight face masks.Solomon is the president of the Maga Mall, a retailer of Donald Trump and “Make America great again” merchandise. Undeterred by the former president’s 2020 election defeat and disgrace, he expects to do brisk business when the biggest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives opens on Thursday.“I speak to state and county Republican party leaders all over the United States and the base is solidly behind Trump,” the 61-year-old said by phone while driving through Louisiana. “As a matter of fact, there’s a movement afoot to get rid of what people call a Rino – a Republican in name only.”Solomon, whose range of masks includes “God, guns and Trump” and “Trump 2024”, will set up his booth at the four-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando. The event has always been an effective way of taking the pulse of the Republican party and broader conservative movement.In 2016 Trump, who was assailing the Republican establishment in a nasty US presidential primary campaign, cancelled a planned appearance amid fears of boos and protests. But a year later, having vanquished Hillary Clinton, he was greeted as a conquering hero. CPAC became an annual Maga jamboree, less conservative policy shop than Trumpian cult of personality in action.The lineup at CPAC 2021 – switched to Florida from Maryland because of coronavirus safety constraints – suggest that Trump’s dominance is entirely undiminished by his loss of the White House and Republican setbacks in Congress.Speakers include his allies such as Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state; Ben Carson, the ex-housing secretary; Sarah Sanders, a former White House press secretary; Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota; Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host; Jon Voight, an ardently pro-Trump actor; and Donald Trump Jr, the 45th president’s son.There are also slots for Senate Republicans including Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Cynthia Lummis and Rick Scott, and House Republicans such as Kevin McCarthy, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan, all of whom voted to challenge Joe Biden’s victory. The “big lie” of a stolen election is expected to thrive at CPAC.That is not least because the conference will culminate on Sunday with Trump himself. In his first post-presidential speech, he is expected to promise to back Maga candidates in next year’s midterm elections, condemn Biden’s reversal of his immigration policies and reserve particular venom for his foes within the Republican party.Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosts CPAC, told the Reuters news agency: “Donald Trump is going to stay in the game and will be involved in primaries and he’s going to opine and he’s going to give speeches, and for establishment Republicans it puts shivers down their spine. They’re very concerned he’s going to continue to have an impact. My advice to them is to get used to it.”Among the talking points will be a straw poll of attendees on their preferences for the Republican nomination in 2024. Given the section of the party that now rules CPAC, there is little doubt that Trump will emerge the winner.Tim Miller, former political director of Republican Voters Against Trump, said: “He’s gonna speak right after the 2024 straw poll, which presumably will show him with a landslide victory, and so I think it’s set up for him speak in a way that will signal that he sees himself as the leader of the party, as the frontrunner for 2024. He will attack those who have questioned him in that regard.“I’m sure he’ll be received overwhelmingly positively by the crowd in those appeals. The Republicans are doing this to themselves. They had an opportunity to put a stake in his heart [at this month’s impeachment trial]; they didn’t take it and he’s in charge of the party right now. He has the support of a plurality, if not a majority of the voters within the party. There is no real organized wing for challenging him.”Just as revealing as who is at CPAC is who is not.The former vice-president Mike Pence, apparently abandoned by Trump on 6 January even as a violent mob closed in at the US Capitol, declined an invitation. Nikki Haley, an ex-ambassador to the UN who was sharply critical of the president’s role in the insurrection but then reportedly tried and failed to heal the rift, will also not be present.Another absentee will be Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, who voted to acquit Trump on a technicality at the impeachment trial but then eviscerated him for inciting the deadly riot. If McConnell’s intention was to the light the party’s path to a post-Trump future, however, few analysts believe he will succeed.Miller, writer-at-large at the Bulwark website and former communications director for Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign, commented: “In the actual battlefield of the campaigns, there’s no McConnell wing, there are no candidates saying that Trump shouldn’t have advanced the big lie. There are going to be no candidates for Senate besides Lisa Murkowski [of Alaska] saying that we should move on from Donald Trump and that he’s complicit in the coup and there’s a shameful moment in our history. The Republican candidates are all for Trump.”Republicans who voted to impeach or convict Trump have been censured and vilified by their home state parties. Solomon, the Trump merchandise seller, attended a recent rally in Wyoming that called on the local congresswoman Liz Cheney to resign.He said: “McConnell just got re-elected. If McConnell was up in 22, there’s no way he would have said what he said because there’s no way he would win. Right now in Kentucky, a cat would win a primary against McConnell.”Right now in Kentucky, a cat would win a primary against McConnellA CNN poll last month found that three in four Republicans believe that Biden did not legitimately win the presidential election, even though state officials and courts found no significant evidence to back Trump’s claims of voter fraud. The conspiracy theorists are expected to be out in force at CPAC.Tamara Leigh, a past CPAC attendee who protested in Washington on 6 January but was a was a block or two away from the US Capitol when it was stormed, said she feels “100%” certain that the election was stolen. She cited conversations with Patrick Byrne, a former Overstock.com chief executive, and a film produced by Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow (both men’s claims have been widely debunked).Leigh, who is in her 50s and works in communications, added: “If Trump runs in 2024, I absolutely would support him and I think his base will follow. His base is the Republican party. The 78 million Trump voters [the true figure was 74 million] are still standing with our president and I believe the majority are resolved to continue to fight even harder. The support will be with him, not with the GOP.”Last year’s CPAC at the National Harbor in Maryland had the slogan “America vs socialism”, a message that fell flat against the moderate Democrat Biden. The event suffered a scare when it emerged that an attendee had been infected with the coronavirus.This year’s organizers are insisting that masks be worn, although many of the speakers were notably reluctant to do so for months. Brandon Morris, a nurse in Orlando who attended CPAC two years ago, said: “This is Florida. I don’t know if you saw the Super Bowl? When I was in New York, everyone wore masks but in Florida, it’s just a cultural difference. Some people will wear masks, some people probably won’t wear masks.”This year’s theme is “America Uncanceled”, a reference to the current conservative sport of accusing liberals of applying “cancel culture” to those whose views they do not share. But it is a slogan that the Maga crowd might themselves apply to McConnell, Cheney and other dissidents who will be nowhere near Orlando.Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, said: “What there’s going to be over the next year or so is a question as to how people who would prefer President Trump not be the leading voice for the Republican party position themselves. There’ll be many different views on that and many different attempts.“Clearly McConnell is somebody who will defend all sitting senators and who’s made his views about Trump’s action on January 6 clear. But McConnell is not somebody who plays from out front. He likes to play from behind, so I will not expect it to be a McConnell versus Trump show. It may be to Trump’s advantage to try and make it that but it’s not in McConnell’s interest to accept the bait.” More