Donald Trump at CPAC: Out of sight, not out of mind
A cardboard cutout of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stands at the American Conservative Union’s CPAC conference at National Harbor, Md., on Thursday. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Donald Trump may have backed out of the American Conservative Union’s 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), but he loomed large in discussions about conservatism’s future.
The Republican presidential frontrunner had been scheduled to speak at 8:30 a.m. Saturday during the conference at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center outside Washington, D.C. But he pulled out the day before so he could hold rallies in Kansas and Florida.
In response to this 11th-hour cancellation, CPAC tweeted, “Very disappointed @realDonaldTrump has decided at the last minute to drop out of #CPAC – his choice sends a clear message to conservatives.”
Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, told Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly that the frontrunner wanted to dictate the rules for his appearance, which the organization deemed inappropriate.
On Friday, there had been rumblings of scheduled anti-Trump protests. The #NeverTrump movement, for instance, vowed to do everything it could to make sure the reality TV star never gets the GOP nomination to become a contender for the Oval Office.
Late Saturday morning, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio elicited howls of approval when excoriating Trump in an address to a full house at the center’s Potomac Ballroom.
“The American dream is not about how much money you make or how many buildings your name is on,” he said.
The young candidate said he believes today’s youth is on the verge of becoming the “next greatest generation” but fears this won’t happen under a Trump administration.
Marco Rubio acknowledges the audience after speaking at the CPAC conference on Saturday. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
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“They won’t have a chance if the conservative movement is hijacked by someone who is not a conservative,” Rubio said to thunderous applause. On Trump skipping CPAC, he joked, “This is the American Conservative Union, and so it’s usually reserved for conservatives.”
Rubio’s speech was just one instance of the anti-Trump sentiment permeating CPAC this year. The crowd booed when the brash billionaire popped up in a video that played between speeches.
Just days before, former Republican presidential candidate and GOP establishment favorite Mitt Romney condemned the real estate magnate as a fraud — a judgment that many at the conference seemed to share.
Immediately upon entering the convention center’s atrium earlier on Saturday, I was approached by a group of college students who were handing out voter guides describing Trump’s various political affiliations and positions since the 1980s. The booklets laid out the case that Trump is many things, but a consistent conservative is not one of them.
Cecilia Daizovi, a Georgetown student, was volunteering with Our Principles PAC, the anti-Trump group behind the pamphlet. She said Trump is too divisive a figure to receive the GOP’s nod.
“I think he’s called out too many people based on race, based on gender, based on socioeconomic status,” Daizovi said. “And I think that the Republican nominee needs to be someone who brings our country together rather than create a bigger divide.”
Howard Wooldridge, a retired detective with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, called Trump the “Frankenstein” of the Republican Party. (Photo: Michael Walsh/Yahoo News)
Immediately afterward, Howard Wooldridge, a retired police detective, walked by wearing a white cowboy hat, a large Western belt buckle and a T-shirt that reads, “Cops say legalize pot. Ask me why.” He was arguing that the war on drugs has been the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow.
Wooldridge, an activist for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), said that of the remaining GOP candidates, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is the best on the 10th Amendment — getting the federal government out of a state’s right to make its own decisions regarding marijuana.
“Donald Trump is like the original ugly American,” Wooldridge said. “He represents almost the worst of what an American is. And it’s regretful that he’s winning. It demonstrates the absolute horrific frustration and anger of the American public, especially Republicans.”
He called Trump the “Frankenstein” that the Republican Party has created over the last 20 years by giving lip service to small government while letting the national debt balloon.
Conservative students Brady Smith, left, and August Beimer discuss Republican candidates at CPAC 2016. (Photo: Michael Walsh/Yahoo News)
August Beimer and Brady Smith, conservative high school students from Maryland attending CPAC, shared Wooldridge’s support of Cruz and distaste for Trump.
“I’m personally not a huge fan,” Beimer said. “I certainly respect him as a person and a businessman. But as a politician and conservative, I’m not sure he has the past to prove it or the principles to stand up for it. I’m skeptical.”
Smith added, “I would agree. He’s a respected businessman, but as a conservative politician, I just can’t get behind him. I don’t think he has a conservative record. He’s too flip-floppity. I can’t support him.”
Fran Finnegan, a conservative voter visiting with his family from San Francisco, said he shifted his support to Cruz after retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson suspended his campaign.
“I can’t trust Trump. … He’s like [President] Obama. He’ll tell you anything. That’s how I feel. Cruz has always been where he’s always been. He’s consistent, and that’s important,” Finnegan said.
Various conservative groups set up stands to promote their causes at CPAC 2016. (Photo: Michael Walsh/Yahoo News)
His wife, Diane O’Malley, however, is a big Trump fan.
“He’s a change, and we need a change,” she said. “And he’s energized the party. He’s brought so many people into the party. There are twice as many people coming out and voting and he’s a good change agent. We’ll see what happens. How bad could he be?”
The couple agrees, though, that either Republican candidate would be preferable to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
They were in the audience of the Potomac Ballroom the previous evening when Cruz’s attacks on Trump, the flamboyant New Yorker, garnered huge applause and only small pockets of disapproval.
“It’s easy to talk about making America great again,” Cruz said of Trump. “You can even print that on a baseball cap. But the question is, ‘Do you understand the principles that made America great in the first place?’”
I asked a young conservative to my right what she thinks of Trump.
“His name won’t be on my ballot. I can tell you that,” she laughed.
And if he makes it to the general election?
She paused and then said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
