By Janita Kan
Former President Donald Trump will talk about the future of the Republican party and lessons learned in 2020 during his upcoming speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump senior adviser Jason Miller has said.
CPAC Communications Director Ian Walters told The Epoch Times on Saturday that the former president will be a keynote speaker at the conference and is scheduled to speak on the last day of the conference on Feb. 28. Trump’s attendance will be his first public appearance since leaving office.
Miller told Newsmax on Saturday that Trump intends to share his views on the growing GOP support for his “America First” agenda as well as about what the Republican party could do to yield wins in 2022 and 2024 elections.
“I think what you’re going to hear President Trump talk about next Sunday on the 28th is the future of the Republican Party and the number of lessons that we learned in 2020, where we saw President Trump bring in a record amount of African American voters, Latino American voters on the GOP side, bigger numbers than we’ve seen in modern Republican presidential history,” Miller said. “We have to keep these voters engaged in the party.”
Trump is a frequent guest at the conference, hosted by the American Conservative Union, that attracts hundreds of conservatives each year. This year’s event, which will run between Feb. 25 and 28, will be held in Orlando, Florida.
Other confirmed speakers at the event include South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Secretary of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, and former acting national security adviser Richard Grenell.
In 2020, Trump spoke out against the rising influence of socialism, which was the conference’s theme that year. The former president warned about the agenda of far-left radicals and its impact on America if left unchecked.
“Far-left radicals have become increasingly desperate and increasingly dangerous in their quest to transform America into a country you would not recognize—a country in which they control every aspect of American life,” Trump said at the time.
“Just as socialist and communist movements have done all over the world, they’re cracking down on all dissent and demanding absolute conformity. They want total control.”
He said that if socialist policies are left to flourish then they would “turn America very quickly into a large-scale Venezuela.”
Current and former advisers of Trump have said that the former president intends to spend time and money to help Republicans flip the House of Representatives and the Senate in 2022.
The Republican party is currently assessing its path forward post-Trump presidency.
While some Republicans, including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have called for their party to move beyond Trump, others argue that embracing the former president and his policies such as his “America First” agenda is the way forward.
Trump issued a strong statement earlier this week criticizing McConnell’s leadership and arguing that the Republican Party won’t be successful in the future with McConnell at the front.
“He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership,” Trump said.
“Then came the Georgia disaster, where we should have won both U.S. Senate seats, but McConnell matched the Democrat offer of $2,000 stimulus checks with $600. How does that work?” the former president added. “It became the Democrats’ principal advertisement, and a big winner for them it was.”
Trump added that the GOP under McConnell’s leadership “will never do what needs to be done in order to secure a free and fair electoral system in the future.”
Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
