The Conservative Political Action Conference just wrapped up at the Gaylord Texan Resort, and we have never seen anything quite this pathetic. Trump skipped it. Vance skipped it. Tucker, Megyn Kelly, Rubio — all no-shows. The biggest names in MAGA treated their own conference like a dentist appointment they forgot to cancel.
So who DID get a primetime speaking slot? Liz Truss and the son of the former Shah of Iran. Somebody check the calendar — is it 2003 again?
We’re not joking about the Iranian prince thing. The party that swept into power on “America First” literally rolled out the red carpet for an exiled royal who wants American boys to go fight his war for him. His name is Reza Pahlavi, and the crowd gave him a standing ovation. These are the same people who were chanting “no more forever wars” eighteen months ago. The neocons didn’t even have to sneak back in through a window — CPAC held the front door open for them.
Here’s some context for why the building felt like a retirement community with a cash bar. It’s been one month since the U.S. and Israel started bombing Iran, and things are going spectacularly badly. Gas is pushing four bucks a gallon. Thirteen American servicemembers are dead. And Trump’s approval rating? Thirty-six percent.
That’s not a typo. Thirty-six. His economic approval is even worse — twenty-nine percent. Those are dementia-potato numbers. That’s Joe Biden wandering off stage while shaking hands with the air. That’s where we are right now.
The crowd at CPAC reflected it. The median age of attendees was north of 55. (We’re not making that up.) Some twenty-year-old kid from Connecticut was walking around looking like he’d accidentally wandered into his grandparents’ church social. The young guys who actually won Trump the election in 2024? Either staying home or showing up mad as hell.
A 26-year-old from Lubbock, Texas, said what everybody in that building was thinking but the speakers on stage wouldn’t dare say out loud: “This was supposed to be America First, not Israel first.”
Yikes. Read that one again.
An 18-year-old named Alexander Selby from Pittsburgh said he’s “disillusioned with Trump” and admitted he never really bought the no-new-wars promise because — and this is devastating — “if you look at the people who surround him, it’s very obvious he was never going to do that.”
That’s an 18-year-old who already sees through the whole thing. He hasn’t even finished college and he’s done. Good luck getting him back for the midterms. Somebody in the West Wing should write that on a sticky note and tape it to the bathroom mirror.
But the quote that should keep people up at night came from a guy named Joseph Bolick — 30 years old, served in both the Army and the Marine Corps, voted for Trump twice. “I feel betrayed because he promised no new wars,” Bolick said. “Why aren’t we helping Americans? The economy’s suffering.”
That’s not a CNN plant. That’s not some Democrat operative with a hidden microphone. That’s a combat veteran from Tyler, Texas, saying “I feel betrayed” out loud at CPAC. If that doesn’t make somebody at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue spit out their coffee, nothing will.
And then — because this timeline refuses to stop being ridiculous — Matt Gaetz became the voice of reason. “Party Boy” Gaetz took the CPAC stage and warned that “a ground invasion of Iran will make our country poorer and less safe” and would mean “higher gas prices, higher food prices.” He even took a swipe at politicians who think we owe “some sort of near slavish loyalty to a country in a faraway land.”
When Matt Gaetz is your antiwar conscience, the wheels haven’t just come off. The wheels are in a ditch and the car is on fire.
“War Room” Steve Bannon was broadcasting his show from the conference floor — he cheekily relabeled it the “Peace Room” for the occasion — and reminded the gray-haired crowd that their grandchildren are the ones who’ll end up carrying rifles through Tehran. Erik Prince showed up too. Yeah, the Blackwater guy. Not exactly a peacenik. And even *he* stood up on stage and dropped this little gem: “You will see imagery of burning American warships in the next couple of weeks.”
(Sweet dreams, everybody!)
The administration’s big rebuttal came from Ric Grenell, who assured everyone that this would all look great “in a couple of months.” Right. Just like Iraq was gonna be a cakewalk. Just like Afghanistan was going to wrap up by Christmas. How’d those work out, Ric?
Here’s what the polls say. Sixty-one percent of the country now thinks the military action in Iran has gone too far. Among young voters — you know, the ones who actually delivered Trump his landslide — a Quinnipiac poll found 42 percent believe the war makes the world *less* safe. Only 35 percent think it’s helping.
Nobody voted for four-dollar gas and thirteen dead soldiers in another desert. We voted for cheap energy, a sealed border, and a president who would mind his own business. Every single person at that conference remembered, which is probably why the President decided not to show his face.
We predicted back in 2024 that Trump’s biggest vulnerability would be the people he surrounded himself with. We’re not happy about being right on this one. If the White House thinks they can send Ric Grenell out to pat everybody on the head while gas prices eat us alive and body bags come home from Iran, they’re going to find out what happens when “America First” voters realize they got “America First Into Another War” instead.
Those kids from Lubbock and Pittsburgh aren’t coming back. And without them, 2026 is going to be a bloodbath — just not the kind the neocons were hoping for.