Trump: time for revenge has come

BETTING À DAY

Do you find the title a bit sensationalist or caricatural? It's not mine, I'm just borrowing an excerpt from Trump's speech to the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), the grouping of American conservatives.

Trump at full throttle

As I mentioned last year, CPAC has long been considered a must for ambitious Republicans. Whether you were aiming for a seat in the chamber, the senate or the oval office, obtaining the imprimatur of the influential movement allowed you to launch into the primaries with your letters of nobility.

In recent years, the CPAC has become more radical and it has also lost some of its luster. Being conservative is no longer enough, we must now tend towards the far right, spawn with the alt-right and white supremacists.

If I were interested in these gatherings to identify trends in anticipation of elections, I do it now to see the drift of the movement.

When it is Steve Bannon (sentenced to prison) who is responsible for inflaming the participants and Jair Bolsonaro is a guest brand, you can easily guess that moderation and the unification of the country are not on the list of priorities.

I was less interested in the content this year because we repeated all the great successes of the last years. We may have added a refrain or two about the wokes, but for the rest, the same salad of misinformation and verbal abuse.

More than ever, despite the presence of Nikki Haley, the meeting confirmed Trump's status as the preferred candidate. One of the participants also distorted the acronym CPAC, transforming it into TPAC (Trump Political Action Conference).

It was in front of this conquered public that the 45th president resorted to true warlike rhetoric . Referring to the “last battle” in anticipation of 2024, he assured that he would be more than the voice of those who have been wronged, he now becomes their warrior bringing justice. “I'll be your retribution“, he will deliver vengeance to his followers!

Much ado about nothing?

That Trump is once again CPAC's favorite came as no surprise. What is new is the low turnout and the absence of many personalities who are thinking of facing the former president during the next primaries.

The Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Glenn Youngkin or Tim Scott were all absentee subscribers. Even the leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, and the President of the Republican Party did not deign to make an appearance there.

We are therefore faced with the same observation as a few weeks ago. The extreme right can vociferate, it cannot come to power alone. For now, CPAC and its guru can only serve Democrats by splitting the Republican vote. Somewhere in the White House, Joe Biden hopes things won't change and he can confirm his intention to run for a second term.