Free Republic

Vice President JD Vance won this year’s straw poll of attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference, with 53 percent of respondents saying he was their preferred choice in the 2028 Republican presidential primary. The figure, announced by organizers on Saturday, was a slight drop from his 61 percent support in last year’s poll, and it came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio continued to emerge as a contender in early 2028 conversations. Mr. Rubio earned 35 percent of the vote at CPAC this year, a leap from his 3 percent in 2025. The poll, which came as CPAC wrapped...

Republicans at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference largely rallied behind U.S. strikes on Iran on Thursday, backing President Donald Trump on an issue that has dented his wider approval ratings and could jeopardize the party's prospects in the November midterm elections. Speakers ranging from a prominent evangelist to a former Trump adviser and Iranian political activists took to the stage at the conservative gathering in Grapevine, Texas, to argue the moral case for the war before supporters of Trump's Make America Great Again movement.

As the MAGA faithful gather for another day of CPAC in Grapevine, Texas, they are openly celebrating what they believe is tantamount to a major midterms victory: keeping President Donald Trump from endorsing John Cornyn ahead of May’s GOP Senate primary runoff. MAGA world is taking a victory lap — and fresh comfort — in the receipts: A lack of significant spending and polling so far by not only Cornyn’s campaign, but also the NRSC and One Nation, the Senate Leadership Fund-aligned nonprofit. It amounts to a pattern the MAGA cohort reads as Washington making peace with a matchup between...

Conservative commentator Josh Hammer unleashed on Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Marjorie Taylor Greene during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, characterizing the trio as members of the “retard right.” “You probably noticed that things feel a bit off in the conservative movement at this time,” began Hammer, who made an exception for President Donald Trump and his administration. “It is only when we look outside the administration to the conservative influencer class, those who dwell in ‘podcastistan,’ as some now call it, when we see things going perhaps slightly less well. Don’t get me...

Conservatives from across the country will descend on Texas this week for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the largest gatherings for Republicans in the year. But the yearly gathering comes during a fraught time for the party as the ongoing war with Iran has split some of President Donald Trump's MAGA followers. And for the first time in nearly a decade, Trump will not attend the event. A White House official told ABC News that Trump could not attend due to his schedule and the ongoing conflict in Iran. Vice President JD Vance, who spoke at the...

As a career prosecutor, I have a deep understanding not only of how our criminal statutes work, but also of the personal toll crime takes on families. For years, I have witnessed the devastation caused when loved ones are lost to violent crime. That loss, and the pain left behind, is what drove me to run for office. Simply put, I know what needs to change in our laws to prevent more people from becoming victims. This year, however, it has become increasingly clear why New Mexico remains so dangerous. What follows may sound like “insider baseball,” but it is...

After last week's shock speech from France's Chief of Staff speaking about France faltering if it is not willing to 'accept the loss of its children' President Emmanuel Macron appearing at a military base Thursday to announce phased-in military service for French youth... Political polling this week showing Jordan Bardella the man to beat in the April 2027 Presidential Election. The President of the National Rally (RN) and European Parliament member is the back-up candidate of the RN since the conviction of Marine Le Pen for misusing European Parliament funds disqualifies her from being a candidate for President. Bardella is...

Paul Craig Roberts and the Certifiable Right By Ben Johnson FrontPageMagazine.com | March 17, 2006 Quick – what columnist alleged in an article Thursday that President “Bush intends to attack Iran and that he will use every means to bring war about?” That Bush has used “bribery and coercion” to block “every effort to bring the dispute to a peaceful end”? That “in order to gain a pretext for attacking Iran,” he and a “’black opts’ [sic.] group will orchestrate [an] attack” on U.S. soil? One would never expect to hear the author is “chairman of the Institute for Political...

Attorney General Pam Bondi abruptly dropped off CPAC’s high-profile Summit Against Human Trafficking this Wednesday, claiming she suffered a “torn cornea” and couldn’t make it. The announcement was read live on stage by Acting Assistant AG Matthew Galeotti. Galeotti: “Thank you all for being here with us today and for having me. I do have a note from the Attorney General—Attorney General Pam Bondi—that I wanted to share, which is the following: ‘I’m sorry to miss all of my CPAC friends today, especially Matt and Mercy Schlapp, Senator Blackburn, and the wonderful team at the Tim Tebow Foundation. Unfortunately, I...

With all votes counted, right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki has been elected Poland's new president, the state electoral commission (PKW) said. PKW said Nawrocki won 50.9% percent of the votes – ahead of Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski on 49.1% percent. It's a sensational turnaround from the result of the first exit poll – published immediately after voting ended at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Sunday – that showed Trzaskowski winning on 50.3% to Nawrocki's 49.7%. Trzaskowski had claimed victory after the first exit poll, while Nawrocki cautioned that the results were too close to call. "We won, although the...

Neocon Bill Kristol is urging his Never Trump allies to “Stand with trans,” describing President Donald Trump’s criticism of transgender ideology as “unjust and dangerous.” In a post on X, Kristol — who left the Republican Party over the embrace of President Donald Trump — shared a link to an article written by Marc Solomon, a partner at Civitas Public Affairs Group. Solomon writes about supporting transgender Americans and calls for people to “stand with trans Americans.” “Stand with trans Americans,” Kristol wrote in his post on X. “You don’t have to understand everything about the transgender experience to know...

At the CPAC 2025 meeting, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who was making an address to the conference via video call, experienced an unintended moment of candour when her microphone was still switched on after her speech. Just after her speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C on Saturday, February 22, she was heard saying ‘Volevo morì’, which in Roman Italian translates to ‘I wanted to die’ in English. The off-the-cuff remark, made without realising the audio was still live, was quickly picked up and shared, going viral on social media, turning it into a minor gaffe...

President Donald Trump celebrated his whirlwind first four weeks back in the Oval Office in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday afternoon, mentioning what he called "flagrant scams" uncovered by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. "I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency — you probably haven't heard of it — which is now waging war on government waste, fraud and abuse. And Elon is doing a great job," Trump said at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Saturday in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside the nation's capital. "He's doing a...

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The most famous structure and institution that bears its name, the Kennedy Center, is now being run on an interim basis by Richard Grenell, one of the Trump’s closest allies. And when it gets reformed, who’ll be one of the first acts playing there? According to Steve Bannon’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, it’ll be the J6 Prison Choir. The group, which is comprised of men who spent time behind bars for their roles in the Jan. 6. 2021 Capitol incursion, has been invited to the Kennedy Center by Grenell, according to Bannon.

France's far-right leader Jordan Bardella Friday said he had cancelled his speech at a right-wing meeting in Washington after a "gesture alluding to Nazi ideology" by conservative firebrand Steve Bannon. The president of France's National Rally party, who is in the US capital, said he was not present when Bannon, one of the masterminds behind Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, made a gesture that has been described as a Nazi salute on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

Not too long ago, I decided to try a bold experiment. I returned to the University of Georgia to take some agriculture classes. The reason I considered it bold is that I was old enough to be many of the students' mothers (had I been an extremely young teen mom, of course). I learned a lot of lessons about this current generation of teens and twenty-somethings and how college has changed since my first go-round two decades prior, but what really threw me was when a professor asked for my pronouns. My class was given a virtual assignment to upload...

One of President Trump’s first historic moves after assuming office in January mmuted January 6 hostages were talking all month on social media about meeting up at CPAC 2025. Following President Trump’s courageous move, hundreds of pardoned and commuted January 6 hostages were talking all month on social media about meeting up at CPAC 2025. The men and women were excited about coming together, reuniting, and meeting each other, as well as the amazing American patriots who fought for their freedom. And, of course, the January 6ers also wanted to see the man who gave them their FREEDOM, President Donald...

Outspoken January 6 prisoner Jake Lang was kicked out of CPAC on Wednesday during a live-stream video. Jake was then escorted out of the Gaylord Hotel as he kept on broadcasting! Here is the video stream from inside CPAC as Jake is escorted from the premises.

Matt Schlapp, the face of the Conservative Political Action Conference, allegedly sexually assaulted a man at a bar in Virginia last weekend. According to independent journalist Yashar Ali, seven witnesses say that the chairman of the American Conservative Union “allegedly engaged in lewd conduct and allegedly sexually assaulted a man at a bar on Saturday night near a property he owns in north-central Virginia.” Ali reports that restaurant and bar is located in north-central Virginia which is allegedly nearby a property owned by Schlapp and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp. The Schlapps are vocal supporters of President Donald Trump with Mercedes...