President Trump is expected to follow the first-year practice of former President Ronald Reagan and attend the February Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering and boot camp of young conservatives.
Reagan went to seven of eight that were held when he was president, telling the convention in his first year as president, “You dance with the one that brung ya.”
Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which is putting on the event Feb. 22-25, told the Washington Examiner he expects Trump to come. He has already nailed down a date for Vice President Mike Pence to speak.
“We think that Donald Trump would start his presidency on the right foot with conservatives, which he has already done with his very conservative Cabinet and outstanding selection to the Supreme Court, by coming to CPAC and paying respect to the group of voters who really put him in the White House,” he said.
Last year Trump opted out of CPAC in favor of a campaign trail speech in Kansas. But in his statement at the time, he said, “Mr. Trump would like to thank [American Conservative Union Chairman] Matt Schlapp and all of the executives at CPAC and looks forward to returning to next year, hopefully as President of the United States.”
With conservatives at the top of all three branches of power, Schlapp said the gathering will have a much different feel and focus than during the Obama years.
.@VP is the most conservative governor in modern history with a ACU Lifetime Rating of 99%. We are proud to welcome him back to #CPAC2017 pic.twitter.com/Jvj6QBeysV
— ACU (@ACUConservative) February 7, 2017
“It will be more practical,” he said. “It’s not a conference where we dream about what could be. It’s a conference where we talk about what we should do. It’s no longer about the conservative shadow government. It’s now about conservatives in government.”
Several House and Senate members, governors, law enforcement officials and Cabinet secretaries are expected to speak, a sign that the GOP is back and sticking to conservative policies.
“The Republican Party has got its groove back by having as its head somebody who, while not having long-standing Republican roots, is teaching them how to fight again,” Schlapp said. “I think Republicans and conservatives like the fact that we’re fighting.”
Since he’s been in office, Trump has reached out to several conservatives, including Schlapp, to talk shop.
“It’s paid dividends. He’s a great listener. I think his instincts are conservative. I think his instincts are that the government screws up a lot of things and that the ‘same old, same old’ crowd does not always give us the government that we deserve. He’s bringing in outsiders like Reagan did, which is a positive,” the ACU chairman said.
And as an outsider, Trump is giving voice to conservatives who have sometimes felt they are outside the Republican Party. Trump and conservatives, he said, “have less allegiance to the elephant than to the philosophy that undergirds the movement.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
