After a rowdy debate performance on Thursday night, Donald Trump made a bombshell announcement that he would not be speaking at CPAC 2016. Trump was scheduled as the first event of Saturday morning.
News quickly spread at the CPAC conference, with it being the top news for #CPAC2016 on Twitter. CPAC expressed the decision sends a certain kind of message.
Very disappointed @realDonaldTrump has decided at the last minute to drop out of #CPAC — his choice sends a clear message to conservatives.
— CPAC (@CPAC) March 4, 2016
Red Alert Politics spoke to students at the conference who shared their thoughts about Donald Trump’s decision. Whether they were supporters of Trump or not, there was a sense of disappointment about not getting to hear him speak.
Elizabeth Franko is a student at the University of Scranton. In addition to being disappointed, she feels Trump “definitely should have made an appearance.” She hasn’t decided who she’s voting for yet, but it still “would have been interesting to see him person with the media attention he’s getting.” Franko spoke to how it’s difficult to figure out what Trump is really like in person with how the media portrays him, and it would have been nice to hear him speak.
Dalton Landman and Brittany Brown are both students from Miami University in Ohio. While Landman said he wasn’t voting for him, he “still wanted to see him speak.”
Brown, on the other hand, proudly displayed her Trump sticker and was eager to speak to Red Alert Politics. She feels that Donald Trump makes “calculated decisions.” While she is upset because she wanted to see him, she felt he makes the right decisions, and he made the right decision for him.
Student Elisa Seegmiller had clear thoughts about why Trump dropped out. She believes Trump “knows that he’s not a true conservative, and he knows that he’s not accepted.” She also spoke to her experience watching the debate. “If you were here for our debate-watching party, he was booed almost every single time -there wasn’t one time that anybody cheered for Trump.”
Speaking further about CPAC, Seegmiller says Trump “knows people are going to call him out. He knows he’s going to be asked tough questions, and he’s not going to be welcome.”
