The Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday will cheer the first Republican White House officials that attendees have seen in almost a decade, but many will also be watching to see if high-level Trump administration officials can put down rumors that they are having trouble working together.
Conservatives who travel to the Gaylord Hotel in Maryland's National Harbor will be greeted by a generous lineup of President Trump's closest advisers, including White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, senior strategist Steve Bannon and counselor Kellyanne Conway. They will also hear from newly minted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Vice President Mike Pence.
They will be followed on Friday morning by Trump, whose decision to skip last year's confab was categorized as a "missed opportunity" by CPAC organizers. Scott Pruitt, the newest director of the Environmental Protection Agency and a figure scorned by the left, will close the three-day summit on Saturday.
White House officials say their heavy presence at CPAC reflects the president's ongoing desire to "maintain a running dialogue with his supporters" and to share his blueprint for the next four years. "We are always looking for ways to promote the president's message and agenda and CPAC is a great platform to do that," one source told the Washington Examiner.
But others claim the administration is seizing an opportunity to allay suspicions that senior White House aides are at war with each other, and is deploying them to deliver a singular message to conference-goers and to reporters who've cast Trump's inner circle as a quartet of power-hungry civil servants.
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05.13.2024