Fox News has learned that former President Donald Trump (Trump) will attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) later this month, his first public appearance since leaving office. Photo shows Trump attending CPAC’s annual convention on Feb. 29, 2020
Former President Donald Trump will attend and speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) later this month, the first public appearance since he left office, English-language Epoch Times News has learned.
The 2021 CPAC conference will be held outside of Washington, D.C., starting next Thursday, Feb. 25, with a four-day conference in Orlando, Fla.
CPAC communications director Ian Walters confirmed to the English-language Epoch Times that Trump will deliver the keynote address at the 2021 CPAC conference.
Walters said the former president’s speech is scheduled for the afternoon of Feb. 28, the final day of the conference.
Sources familiar with Trump’s speech told Fox News that Trump will talk about the future of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, and may also criticize President Biden‘s “disastrous Amnesty and border policies.
Trump has remained relatively quiet since leaving the White House on Jan. 20 to take up residence at Mar-a-lago, Florida, and after Twitter blocked Trump’s account.
But after the Senate acquitted Trump on Saturday, the former president said he wants to stay politically active and told supporters that the MAGA movement is still going strong.
Trump’s “Office of the Former President” said in a statement on Saturday after the impeachment vote, “Our historic, patriotic and beautiful ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) movement has just begun. Again’ campaign has only just begun. I have much to share with you in the months ahead, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to make America great for all of us. There has never been anything like it!
“We have much work ahead of us, and soon we will emerge with a bright, brilliant, vision of America’s limitless future.”
Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union (ACU), helped organize the meeting. He previously said he extended an invitation to Trump.
“I would love to see him come to the Conservative Political Action Conference,” Schlapp told the Washington Examiner.
In his speech at the 2020 convention, Trump told attendees, “God bless you! God bless America! I’ll see you next year.”
Fox News reports that CPAC 2021 will be held Feb. 25-28 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Fla.
In an earlier tweet, the Conservative Political Action Conference said, “We are replacing the Washington blockade with sunshine and freedom.” Schlapp said via Twitter that the conference “will be the place where conservatives plot, plan and unite to defeat socialism in America.”
Scheduled speakers include a number of former Trump Administration officials, including former Housing Secretary Ben Carson, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Trump allies such as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former acting national security adviser Richard Grenell will also speak.
Members of Congress scheduled to attend the conference include Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Ted Budd of North Carolina, and Mo. Brooks (R-Ala.).
The Conservative Political Action Conference describes itself as the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world. CPAC began in 1974 and has always been held in or around Washington, D.C. For the past eight years, the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Maryland, just outside the District of Columbia, has been the site of CPAC. However, this conference site is in a state of closure due to the Communist virus pandemic.
CPAC organizers told Fox News in December 2020 that last year’s four-day conference drew nearly 20,000 attendees, and that CPAC 2021 will be held indoors as well as through numerous online methods; the conference will be held at the 1,641-room Hyatt Regency, which is connected to the Orange County Convention Center in Florida.
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