Trump More Popular Than Ever With CPAC Faithful. Maybe They Just Like Fascists.



Donald Trump, the once and future insurrectionist, delivered his greatest fascist hits this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas. It was dreadful and more of the same, but with some grossly transphobic rhetoric.

Michael Hardy, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, described Trump’s speech as “full-on unapologetic fascism,” which is apparently what the CPAC crowd wants from a leader. A straw poll conducted Saturday found that 69 percent of attendees support Trump as the 2024 presidential nominee. This is a significant increase from a February CPAC poll in Orlando that had Trump with 59 percent support.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was again a distant second with 23.7 percent support. The aspiring autocrat enjoyed 28 percent support in the February poll. A paltry 1.7 percent of attendees wanted Sen. Ted Cruz as the Republican nominee. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was fourth with 1.2 percent.

PREVIOUSLY: Oh No, Do Half Of GOP Voters Hate Donald Trump Now? (No.)


CPAC’s straw polls are eerily consistent with a more formal New York Times/Sienna College poll that has Trump far ahead of the pack with 49 percent support. DeSantis was second with 25 percent and Cruz was third with a pathetic seven percent.

Attendees were offered a list of 21 Republicans, some of whom are almost normal, such as Sen. Mitt Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence … OK, well, maybe just Romney is “normal.” The other also-rans included former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. They were all less popular than Ted Cruz.

CPAC’s Matt Schlapp declared that Trump is the leader of the party “until he takes his last breath.” How King George of him.

When Trump was removed as an option, DeSantis came in first with 65 percent followed by Donald Trump Jr., of all people, with eight percent. Cruz was third with six percent.,

The CPAC attendees gave Trump a 99 percent approval rating, and 90 percent said they were “strongly satisfied” with his abhorrent conduct. The January 6 committee hearings have had little positive impact on these cultists.

DeSantis wins the vice presidential sweepstakes, as 43 percent of attendees think he should replace Pence as Trump’s disposable wingman. Noem had nine percent support for the veep slot, followed by Pompeo at seven percent. It’s unclear why Pompeo is performing better than Haley and Pence, but it’s hilarious.

PREVIOUSLY: Awww, Nikki Haley Still Thinks She Could Be President … Of America!

During a Fox News appearance Sunday, Haley was asked if she thinks maybe Trump shouldn’t run again after plotting a coup. Her response was a profile in cowardice:

HALEY: Well, I think President Trump will decide for himself if he wants to run again. And the January 6 has been a biased committee from the start without anyone pushing back on the information they have, so it’s very hard for Americans to trust it.

This “biased committee” has heard testimony from Republican election officials and former Trump White House staffers about how Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll from June, 60 percent of Americans consider the January 6 Committee’s investigation “fair and impartial,” and 57 percent of Americans believe Trump is to blame for the insurrection he incited. Haley’s just making shit up.

She also jumped on the trans-bashing bandwagon, because Republicans apparently consider this marginalized and bullied group of Americans an existential threat.

HALEY: Look, if there’s a place for me, I look at the craziness of the world. I look at what’s happening with this woke culture and schools wanting our kids to decide their gender. I look at the fact that we’ve got men playing women’s sports. I look at the fact that we’ve got our military focused on gender pronoun classes. What I will tell you is we need to snap out of it. This is absolute craziness.

It’s also mostly bigoted exaggerations and outright lies.

Give it a rest, Haley. Republican voters don’t want you. They’re standing by their maniac, Trump. God help us all.

[Yahoo! / Vanity Fair]

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