‘Where globalism goes to die’: Matt Schlapp previews CPAC 2024

The 50th annual Conservative Political Action Conference kicks off this morning, and it will end Saturday with a speech from Donald Trump and a South Carolina primary watch party. But its focus will be global, and its motto: “Where globalism goes to die.”

Trump will share the CPAC stage with an international array of conservative populists, including Argentina President Javier Milei, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, and former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss. Bukele’s crackdown on crime and Milei’s call for the West to reject a “socialist agenda which will only bring misery” have thrilled American conservatives — as have the pro-family, anti-LGBT reforms of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a 2022 CPAC guest.

“Liz Truss reached out to us and said she was going to be in America and she’d always wanted to go to CPAC,” Matt Schlap, CPAC’s chairman, told Semafor. “We thought that was great synergy. And we’ve obviously worked very closely with the Bolsonaro family, and have had multiple CPACs in Brazil,” he added, referring to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.