Trump’s CPAC

Created
Sun, 05/03/2023 - 04:00
Updated
Sun, 05/03/2023 - 04:00
He’s speaking today. Here’s a preview: Former President Trump plans to draw a sharp ideological contrast between his MAGA movement and Bush-era Republicans in his speech at CPAC on Saturday — and will urge GOP voters to finish the job of remaking the party by backing him for president. The CPAC conference, now dominated by the MAGA movement, offers Trump a home-field advantage. He first spoke there in 2011, where he previewed many of the populist themes that fueled his 2016 campaign. Trump’s keynote address, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET Saturday, is expected to last about 90 minutes. “The issues that brought Trump to the fore in 2016 are still with us,” one Trump aide told Axios. “These issues have never left. He’s going to remind people of the bigger picture. There’s a longer struggle here — in terms of finishing the job.”  Trump’s finish the job rhetoric is somewhat reminiscent of President Biden’s message in his State of the Union speech last month, in which he called on lawmakers to “finish the job” of rebuilding the economy and unifying the country. Trump’s approach is provocative for a former president accused of inspiring an insurrection aimed at overturning the results of an election he lost. Crowds during the first three days of CPAC — at a massive convention complex in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington — reflected the divide Trump fosters among Republicans. They’re smaller than in the past — but heavily pro-Trump..  “Trump has completely remade the party since he’s become…