WASHINGTON — Donald Trump will be in Dallas in July to appear at a major conservative gathering, organizers said Thursday – a fresh spotlight in a friendly state for an ex-president keen to make a comeback, or at least maintain control over the Republican Party.
“We are honored that President Donald Trump will end (CPAC Texas) on a high note and remind us that freedom means never being silenced,” tweeted Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union.
The ACU hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference set for July 9-11 at the Hilton Anatole, a venue with a history of hosting future presidents.
The convention will be a rare appearance for Trump.
A stream of Republican VIPs have made a pilgrimage to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, since Trump left office, among them Sen. Ted Cruz and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Trump’s Save America PAC has been hinting at upcoming rallies, dates and cities unknown. Fundraising emails in the past week refer to an “epic rally in Georgia” or an “epic rally” in Florida.
He’s scheduled to speak Saturday at the North Carolina GOP convention.
And he has issued a stream of endorsements, playing kingmaker and reinforcing his role as the most potent force in the party despite a rare record of losing the White House and both houses of Congress during his term.
On Tuesday, for instance, Trump announced “my Complete and Total Endorsement” of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the same stamp of approval he bestowed on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on May 10.
Trump left Washington hours before President Joe Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20.
Apart from being spotted at Mar-a-Lago or playing golf nearby, Trump was not seen again in public until Feb. 28, when he hinted at attempting a comeback in 2024 -- at a CPAC event at an Orlando Hyatt.
“Who knows? I might even decide to beat them for a third time,” Trump said, sparking cheers from attendees who appreciated the implicit – but false – premise that he actually defeated Biden.
In fact, Trump lagged by 7 million votes, and he lost the Electoral College by a margin as wide as the spread he’d called a “landslide” when he was the victor in 2016. But Trump has managed to instill widespread mistrust among Republicans about the legitimacy of the election, and some diehard supporters genuinely believe he actually won.
Trump also used the Orlando speech to rip the Biden administration’s “destructive agenda” on energy, border security and other issues.
He wasn’t the only potential 2024 contender in Orlando, where a golden statue of Trump was a magnet for selfie-seekers.
Cruz, Trump’s runner-up in 2016, also spoke at that conference, revving the crowd by calling mask requirements “dumb,” and mocking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for saying she feared for her life during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump was impeached and acquitted for inciting the attack.
“Not just one mask, two, three, four. You can’t have too many masks. How much virtue do you want to signal?” Cruz quipped.
He flattered the activists in attendance by comparing them to the good guys in Star Wars: “This is the Rebel Alliance, and Vader and the Emperor… are terrified of the rebels who are here.”
The ACU picked “American UnCancelled” as the theme for this year’s conferences.
Schlapp and his wife Mercedes Schlapp, director of strategic communications in the Trump White House, are scheduled to speak in Dallas.
So are former Housing Secretary Ben Carson and two Texas congressmen: freshman Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo — a former White House physician whom Trump tried to install as veterans secretary — and Rep. Roger Williams of Texas.
Other announced speakers include KT McFarland, a former deputy national security advisor under Trump, and James O’Keefe, president of Project Veritas, which uses secret recordings and deceptive techniques to try and discredit mainstream news media.
CPAC gatherings have long been a springboard for would-be Republican nominees.
Trump’s popularity among CPAC attendees helped propel him through the 2016 primaries, though in Orlando in February, a straw poll found that just 68% of attendees want him to run again – even though 97% approve of his performance as president.
