Trump returns: What is CPAC, and why does it matter?

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Blessed with his presence will be the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, the annual convention that pulls together the US’s right-wing elite to strut their stuff or blow off steam, depending on their mood. On that last point, this year’s schedule features some telltale names: South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley all have solo speaking slots. “I hope that’s okay.” Contained in that brief moment is everything that CPAC has become: a forum for venting cultural and political grievance, a chance for leaders to shore up their credibility, and a multi-day rally that gets useful TV coverage for a cheering conservative crowd. But he also laid out the nationalistic creed to which Mr Trump openly pandered as he steadily took over the Republican Party: “We are a nation with a culture and a reason for being.” It was at CPAC’s 2011 meeting, in fact, that Mr Trump gave his first major political speech.