AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's a big weekend for conservative activists around here in Washington, D.C. President Trump headlined the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have a lot to stick together for because what we've done has never been done before. Nobody's ever seen anything like this, and nobody's ever seen four weeks like we've had.
RASCOE: And across town, a smaller group of conservatives who oppose Trump gather to talk about what's next. NPR's Stephen Fowler and Sarah McCammon have been covering these events, and they join us now. Good morning to you both.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Good morning.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Hey there.
RASCOE: So, Stephen, I'll start with you and CPAC. What did you hear there?
FOWLER: CPAC has been around for a while, but since Trump has been on the scene the last decade, you might as well call it TPAC. Here's one of Trump's pollsters, John McLaughlin, speaking just after showing a straw poll of CPAC participants found a 99% approval rating of Trump as president.
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JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: And I said, it's way more popular than even Ronald Reagan was, and I never would have said this back in the day. Donald Trump has literally remade the Conservative movement. He's remade the Republican Party.
FOWLER: Not that there's any deviation from Trump and his administration were quashed or silenced this week, but it also stood out to me, Ayesha, how seamlessly Trump 2.0's policies and language and world view are organically reflected in virtually every aspect of CPAC.
RASCOE: Sarah, you were at a competing event that continues today. So how are conservatives who oppose Trump feeling right now?
MCCAMMON: Well, they're a much smaller group. I attended a summit hosted by a group called Principles First, which began during Trump's first term in opposition to his policies. And speakers there included high-profile anti-Trump Republicans, such as former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He criticized several of the administration's actions so far, including the firings of federal prosecutors who investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
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ALBERTO GONZALES: You're doing your job successfully, and you get fired. That is a complete betrayal. I think it's a betrayal to the American people for the president to pardon particularly those individuals that are dangerous.
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GONZALES: The president's pardon power is virtually absolute in the Constitution, so I get that he has the authority to do that. There's no question about it. But it was a wrong thing to do.
MCCAMMON: And of course, Gonzales is referring there to Trump's pardoning of 1,500 people related to January 6. And he said, you know, without speaking for former President George W. Bush, who he served under, he couldn't imagine Bush pardoning offenders who had harmed police officers or caused damage to the U.S. Capitol. So, Ayesha, this was an opportunity for conservative-leaning activists who've largely given up on today's Republican Party to kind of regroup and try to carve out a space for those anti-Trump conservative voices.
RASCOE: Stephen, how are folks at CPAC reacting to Trump's first month in office?
FOWLER: I mean, they love it. I want to play some remarks here from Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, who encapsulated the sense that Trump is winning, has won and will continue to win in achieving his campaign promises.
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JIM BANKS: Within a short time, we've gotten just a glimpse of the greatness that will define this new era. President Trump has already rooted out massive waste, fraud and abuse within the federal bureaucracy, crippling the corruption of the deep state.
FOWLER: A lot of Trump's agenda is being challenged in court. It's executive action that'll either take time to implement, if it can be implemented at all, but that doesn't really matter as much because Trump is president. He says it's being done, and Republicans do hold all the federal levels of power.
I'll also add, a not-too-surprising undercurrent this week for me was Elon Musk and his DOGE effort. Musk was given the rock star treatment at CPAC. And so many speakers made sure to bring up that effort to cut federal spending and reshape the government in a deferential and effusive way usually reserved for Trump.
RASCOE: Anti-Trump Republicans often find themselves working with Democrats these days. So, Sarah, what did they have to say about how Democrats have been responding to Trump's first month in office?
MCCAMMON: Yeah, I mean, there was plenty of criticism of Trump and Republicans at this event I attended yesterday, but there was also criticism of Democrats. I mean, these are center-right conservatives. I heard more than once that Democrats have failed to communicate to voters that they care about them and understand their concerns. One of the speakers was billionaire Mark Cuban, who endorsed Vice President Harris last year but says he doesn't identify with any party.
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MARK CUBAN: You know, if you're the Democrats or you're trying to counter them - whether you're a conservative, whatever it may be - you have to recognize, you know, telling this other company's customers that they're dumb doesn't work because they're not dumb, right? They bought into what they saw in that person.
MCCAMMON: And Cuban says, as the impact of some of Trump's policy starts to be felt, he thinks more voters will shift away from him, but it might take some time.
RASCOE: Sarah, what about all of those center-right activists and disaffected Republicans that Democrats tried to win over last fall? Do the people you talk to think they can make any progress now with Trump and his supporters fully in power?
MCCAMMON: I mean, it's been tough. You know, Trump not only won but expanded his coalition. So there are many reasons for these kinds of activists to be discouraged, but organizers and speakers point to what they see as some hopeful early signs - Trump's approval ratings dropping this past week, reports of voters showing up at congressional town halls and protesting. So they believe there is an opportunity at this moment for centrists to work together outside the major party structures to push back against him.
FOWLER: And also to Sarah's point, I mean, Trump is not going to be the leader of the Republican Party forever. He's super effective at uniting coalitions both supporting him and opposing him. I mean, Republicans right now are at the pinnacle of power under Trump, but CPAC also didn't give any indication that there's a successor waiting in the wings to keep or grow the disparate groups that support Donald Trump.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Stephen Fowler and Sarah McCammon. Thank you so much to you both.
MCCAMMON: Thank you.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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