What a production at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando this weekend. Idols and lawmakers honoring Donald Trump and his reality show presidency were on full display seemingly prepping Trump's return to run for president in 2024.
First, CPAC featured a six-foot-tall golden statue of former President Donald Trump. CNN called it the “indisputable star” of the conference. The statue has Trump wearing a suit jacket with white shirt and red tie plus American-flag shorts. Trump is also wearing sandals and is holding a magic wand, a reference to how former President Barack Obama once said Trump didn’t have a magic wand to bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States.
“He’s wearing a business suit because he’s a business man. The red tie represents the Republican party, the red white and blue shorts represent the fact that he’s a patriot,” the artist Tommy Zegan told the New York Post. The sandals is the way Zegan chose to represent that Trump was in his golden years and could be “on the beach” if he wanted to.
Zegan told Politico that the fiberglass statue was made in Mexico over a period of six months in the resort town of Rosarito. He then took it to Tampa, where it was painted in chrome and then got a U-Haul to transport it to CPAC. “If someone offered me $100,000 I’d take it,” Zegan said. “It is museum-quality, and that’s the one I’m eventually hoping to get in the Trump library,” Zegan told CNN. “It is literally priceless.”
(Daniel Politi. “The Golden Trump Statue Is the Talk of CPAC. It Was Made in Mexico.” Slate. February 27, 2021.)
Then, you could see Roger Stone dancing to a Trump rapper on the streets of Orlando – the same Roger Stone who was pardoned by Trump after he was indicted on charges of lying to Congress about what he and then-candidate Trump knew about Russian efforts to discredit Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign, witness tampering and obstruction.
The unidentified rapper performed his song in front of a giant SUV with Donald Trump’s face painted on Sylvestor Stallone’s body from “Rambo.” The lyrics repeated Trump’s falsehood that he won the election and referred to the violent rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 as “patriots pulling up, knocking at the Capitol.”
At the end of the video, Roger Stone can be heard saying something about his dancing skills before flashing a pair of peace signs.
(Daniel Goldblatt. “You Can’t Unsee Roger Stone Dancing to a Trump Rap at CPAC (Video).” The Wrap. February 27, 2021.)
And, of course, CPAC's speakers were staunchly behind Trump and the new Republican Party that emerged throughout his four-year tenure, and took direct swipes at the "establishment" wing of the party and Republicans who have come out against Trump.
The theme of CPAC 2021 is "America Uncanceled," but the pre-Trump GOP and establishment Republicans seemed to be "canceled" from the conference altogether.Throughout the day, speakers referenced the pandemic by decrying the restrictions officials put in place. Only about an hour into Friday's programming attendees had to be reminded to keep their masks on.
Speakers stood not only behind Trump but also behind some of his most inflammatory and false ideas. On Saturday, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, a Freedom Caucus member and one of the chief deniers of the results – who was the surprise keynote speaker at a conference Friday night in Orlando, Florida, where speakers spread white nationalist rhetoric – reignited conspiracies about the election being rigged.
But at CPAC, while there were few mentions of Jan. 6, several speakers' rhetoric was similarly inflammatory as they described political opponents in extreme terms and painted a dire picture of a nation led by Democrats.
(Quinn Scanlan andKendall Karson. “3 key takeaways from Friday's CPAC event: Speakers stand behind Trump.” ABC News. February 26, 2021.)
On Friday, multiple speakers minimized the attack or cast blame outside their party. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas did not acknowledge the seriousness of the security breach and related security concerns in their attempts to inherit the former President’s supporters.
If anything, Hawley wore his involvement in the insurrection as a badge of honor. “I was called a traitor, I was called a seditionist, the radical left said I should [resign], and if I wouldn’t resign, I should be expelled from the United States Senate,”
Hawley, who was the first Republican Senator to announce he would object to the results, said. “I’m not going anywhere.” He received applause from the CPAC crowd. He did not mention the attack on the Capitol that followed his announcement that he would challenge the election results.
Cruz dismissed the security concerns stemming from the violence in January. “Let’s be clear, this is not about security at this point, this is about political theater,” he said. “Half the country, the ‘deplorables,’ are dangerous, and [Democrats are] going to turn the Capitol into a military outpost in Baghdad just to have the compliant media echo that message.”
(Lissandra Villa. “Here's How Republicans Downplayed the Capitol Riot at CPAC.” Time. February 26, 2021.)
During his speech, freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., delivered a line eerily similar to one Trump gave on Jan. 6, when the former president said, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
"If we sit on the sidelines, we will not have a country to inherit. If we do not get involved and say that it is our duty to make sure that our country is responsible, that our country doesn't take away our liberties, then my friends, we will lose this nation," Cawthorn said. "The Democrats, my opponents and adversaries on the other side are brutal and vicious and they are trying to take away all of our rights."
Adoration and Fidelity For the “Chosen One”
Golden statues, twerking felons, and insurrection denial – the GOP is busy putting its dedication to the cult of personality together once more. This is evident in Florida this weekend.
Moreover, this worship of Trump is firmly established in prophetic religious fervor as well as in political power.
In a survey conducted last year (Religion and C19, 2020), two political scientists found that nearly half of America’s church-attending white Protestants believed Trump was anointed by God to be president – a portion of the population that other scholars have dubbed “prophecy voters.”
The share is likely higher among charismatic Christians, who skew more politically and theologically conservative than evangelicals as a whole. And although this population is only a subset of American Christianity, it’s a large one: Some estimates hold that as many as 65 million Americans could be counted as Pentecostals or charismatics.
As Republican Party marches toward the 2024 election, its direction points straight toward Trump and his divisive White nationalist agenda. The GOP has no stomach to oppose a narcissistic autocrat who can attract 74 million votes … even after Trump authored and led a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol under false claims of a rigged election.
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