Donald Trump Cannot Be Canceled

Trump appears victorious in front of supporters for the first time since his successor’s inauguration.

While appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference, former U.S. President Donald Trump dropped hints that he might run for president again in the 2024 election. This conference is the largest gathering of Republican forces. CPAC has always been well known for its libertarian agenda, but this year it became the stage for just one actor, previously the main character of the country’s political theatre, now kicked out. Kommersant observed his performance.

Trump arrived at the conference on the very first day. Actually, “was delivered” might be closer to the truth. We are not referring to the 45th president of the U.S., who appeared only at the conference’s closing. No, we are talking about a statue that represents the Republican soul itself — Trump dressed in a tux, with the stars and stripes on its shorts, sandals, the U.S. Constitution in one hand and a magic wand in the other. Oddly enough, the statue was manufactured in Mexico.

Although the former U.S. president was absent for the first two days of the conference, the atmosphere of the event was full of his invisible presence. Speakers kept on mentioning their beloved Trump, exalting his thoughts and beliefs, confidently declared that his victory at the 2020 election had been stolen.

The Republicans’ enemy for the past few years has been “fake news,” but now they have found a new one: “cancel culture.” This is the name for the modern trend when a person is “cancelled” (disavowed) because of rape or assault accusations or politically incorrect statements, often verbal and not based on evidence, about events that had taken place decades ago. All contracts with the “cancelled” person are suspended; he is fired and publicly shunned.

Conservatives have declared the battle against cancel culture their main goal right now. In fact, the CPAC conference was called “America Uncanceled.” “The left believes in rigid conformity. We believe in diversity, free speech. You can say whatever you want no matter how dumb it is. And by the way, in Washington D.C., we test that proposition,” joked Texas Sen. Ted Cruz from the stage. He declared freedom in the United States at risk and drew parallels between the current political situation and the Star Wars movie franchise, comparing Republicans to the rebels and Democrats and their allies to the Galactic Empire, very much frightened by the rebels.

This comparison was not random, as “The Mandalorian” (which is set in the Star Wars universe) star Gina Carano was fired by Disney in February 2021 for posting a tweet that compared conservative Americans, who were being pressured and oppressed for their views, to Jews in Nazi Germany. Many conservatives, including Cruz, considered this an example of “cancel culture.”

The senator summarized his reactions to the global cancelling and obstruction that the conservatives have apparently experienced from the left. “You can French kiss the guy next to you yelling, ‘Abolish the police,’ and no one will get infected. But if you go to church and say, ‘Amazing grace,’ everyone’s going to die,” Cruz said, referring to the hypocrisy of COVID-19 regulations.

Mike Pompeo, former U.S. secretary of state, was one of the stars of CPAC — he sang the praises of his former boss’s international relations strategy. “America first is right for America. It’s right for each of us. America first secures our freedom and the entire world benefits when America is fearless and bold and strong,” said the former diplomat, and emphasized that he can now, having resigned from his position, be completely frank. He especially praised Trump for his decision to kill Iranian military Gen. Qassem Soleimani and then critiqued China rather harshly. The Democrats also received their share of criticism from him. “They want to defund the police while they barricade the Capitol. This is backwards. And canceling our freedom to assemble peacefully, while censoring our communications online is completely antithetical to what our founders understood about America,” declared Pompeo.

But the real star of the show was, of course, Trump himself.

“Do you miss me yet?” he asked the jubilant crowd with a smile.

“For the next four years, the brave Republicans in this room will be at the heart of the effort to oppose the radical Democrats, the fake news media and their toxic cancel culture. Something new to our ears, cancel culture. And I want you to know that I’m going to continue to fight right by your side. We will do what we’ve done right from the beginning, which is to win. We’re not starting new parties. They kept saying, he’s going to start a brand new party. We have the Republican Party,” declared the former U.S. president. His statement put an end to rumors about the creation of a “Patriotic” party and assured the audience that the Republicans, once unified, will become even stronger.

Having praised his allies, Trump went for his enemies next.

“Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history. That’s true. Already the Biden administration has proven that they are anti-jobs, anti-family, anti-borders, anti-energy, anti-women, and anti-science. In just one short month, we have gone from America first to America last. You think about it, right? America last,” continued Trump.

His speech was often interrupted by applause and cheers — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

However, that was not the end. The 45th U.S. president then listed the first and last names of each Republican member of Congress who voted for his impeachment or spoke out against him. “Get rid of them all,” urged Trump, meaning, it seems, the electoral method of fighting back.

But he did not explain how his contention with ideological opponents within his own party was different from the “cancel culture” that the Republicans were protesting against.

It seems, though, that Republicans are not very concerned with this. The results of an unofficial survey that took place at the conference show that 55% of those surveyed support Trump’s candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. “Who knows? I may even decide to beat them for a third time,” Trump said to his audience, apparently referring to the 2020 presidential election, which he officially lost.