The 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference begins Wednesday just outside of Washington, D.C., specifically attacking large global organizations and their attempts to influence nations, made clear by its theme, “Where Globalism Goes to Die.”
CPAC’s anti-globalism theme comes as Congress continues to face pressure to pass additional military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia for two years, has seen the most pushback in receiving aid as Republicans see a growing divide in their party on foreign policy.
The Senate recently passed a $95.3 billion supplemental measure to provide for aid to all three countries. However, the bill did not include border security after former President Donald Trump and his allies on the hill quashed a bipartisan measure that did include immigration policies.
While the Senate considered passing its foreign aid bill, Trump railed against sending aid to foreign countries, such as Ukraine, without “strings” attached, saying any aid provided should be considered a “loan” instead of “a giveaway.”
<iframe src="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/111908663705756439/embed" class="truthsocial-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="600" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><script src="https://truthsocial.com/embed.js" async="async"></script>The Senate-passed bill hasn’t been brought for a vote in the House, and it is unclear when it might be considered. Johnson reportedly told Republican conference members recently that there was “no rush” to address it.
However, after the death of prominent Putin critic Alexei Navalny in Russian prison, Johnson offered some hope for action on Ukraine aid. “As Congress debates the best path forward to support Ukraine, the United States, and our partners, must be using every means available to cut off Putin’s ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states,” he said in a statement.
As Congress tries to chart out the path forward, or the end to, providing aid to Ukraine, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp said the conference’s, hosted by the ACU, anti-globalist theme is meant to be “a real call to arms against [the World Health Organization], the [United Nations], the [European Union], the [World Economic Forum], all of the ways in which these kind of global institutions are trying to dictate to mainstream Americans what they should eat, what they should drive, what they’re allowed to watch, [and] who you’re allowed to vote for.”
Heath Mayo, the founder of the anti-Trump group Principles First, criticized CPAC’s chosen theme, saying, “I don’t really know that they know what globalism means.”
“They pick up boogiemans like the World Economic Forum. I don’t really know what kind of power the World Economic Forum has. It’s not even a government,” he said.
CPAC has become a staple for Republican politicians and activists throughout the years. And as Trump has solidified his hold over the Republican Party, his presence will be just as undeniable over the conference, which will feature the presidential candidate’s remarks as well as several of his high-profile endorsers.
Trump’s only remaining challenger for the Republican nomination, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has been criticized as a globalist by some due to her hawkish foreign policy approach and previous involvement in the U.N., will not be speaking at the event. However, according to Schlapp, she was invited to CPAC.
Her campaign did not provide comment to the Washington Examiner. The South Carolina Republican primary is notably Saturday, overlapping with CPAC, but Schlapp said, “Trump has found a way to fit in both, so it is totally doable.”
Also overlapping with CPAC will be Principles First’s annual summit, which is counterprogramming the conference by holding an “Anti-CPAC.”
The fourth Principles First Summit will feature speakers such as former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, J. Michael Luttig, George Conway, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and ex-Trump staffer Cassidy Hutchinson.
Mayo would not reveal whether Haley had been invited to Principles First, where she is also not scheduled to speak.
Mayo explained that the two events will present an important juxtaposition for conservatives. “I think they have a clear choice. If they want to go partake in sort of the personality cult circus and roll around golden statues of Trump in the hallways, then they know where to go,” he said.
Amid the widening split among Republicans on foreign policy, Schlapp said the anti-globalism theme is less so about aid to other countries and more focused on the large global organizations and their influence. “I wouldn’t call this a theme that says we are pulled back from being engaged in the world,” he explained. “In fact, we have all these world leaders coming. I think America needs to engage the world.”
For the ACU chairman, it is about “what kind of policies do you want to come out of that. We want these nations to be strong and independent and collaborative with America.”
“We don’t want to have this kind of neocolonialism, which is going on where the Biden administration wants to dictate terms to all these countries,” he added.
Among the speakers at this year’s CPAC are Trump, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), former Democratic presidential candidate and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Scott Perry (R-PA), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Cory Mills (R-FL), Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, and several others. Many of the confirmed speakers for the event have been vocal critics of continued aid to Ukraine.
While Schlapp noted that the conference’s theme wasn’t in reference to foreign aid, he did note that last year’s CPAC straw poll revealed an overwhelming majority of attendees did not approve of billions in aid being sent to Ukraine, at 79%. But these results didn’t necessarily mean the conference goers were anti-Ukraine, he claimed. “I didn’t take that question in a way that said somehow the CPAC audience doesn’t care about aggression, doesn’t have concerns about [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. Instead, “I took that question as: ‘We don’t trust Joe Biden’s foreign policy. We don’t think he has a plan.'”
Schlapp also explained that “a lot of people in our audience watched Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin.” Schlapp said those people have in turn remarked that “Putin felt like there was a promise made by previous American presidents that Ukraine would not be added to NATO. And this really wasn’t our fight.”
Schlapp also said he believes “there’s a lot of people who are dubious about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.”
Meanwhile, Mayo said not only is CPAC “Anti-Ukraine,” but it’s actually “increasingly pro-Russia, pro-Putin, pro-strongman big government.”
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Despite intraparty divisions, Schlapp expects attendance at the conference to be high, saying it’s “gonna be very big.”
CPAC will be held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, from Wednesday, Feb. 21, to Saturday, Feb 24.
