Where Are All the Big Names at CPAC?

The Matt Schlapp-era CPAC is meant to be an America First affair — yet the biggest names besides President Trump are all from overseas. Argentinian president Javier Milei speaks after Trump tomorrow afternoon, while El Salvador president Nayib Bukele was the final speaker yesterday. “They say that globalism comes to die at CPAC — I am here to tell you that in El Salvador, it is already dead,” he told a boisterous crowd, which interrupted him with vuvuzelas and chants of “Bu-ke-le!” at numerous points. ...

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This CPAC is notable for its lack of star power. Besides President Trump, only one governor, Kristi Noem, and two senators, Tommy Tuberville and J.D. Vance, are on the schedule to speak — despite the conference being hosted just outside Washington at the time of the National Governors Association meeting.

Here are some of the figures who are conspicuous by their absence, all of whom have spoken at recent CPACs ...

Ed Morrissey

Matt and Mercedes are friends, and I wish them the best of luck. By "big names," Cockburn doesn't mean me, but I haven't been to CPAC since February 2020 when I came home and got very ill, almost certainly with you-know-what (my wife spent four weeks fighting it after me). That's mainly a function of the cost of travel and a lack of real purpose for being there other than to see old friends. But it is in some part also because this has become less of a clearinghouse of various perspectives on the Right and more of a populist rally. Which can be fun, of course, but not interesting enough for the investment to cover it.

I'd still go again in the future. Maybe I'll be there next year. 

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