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The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) opens on Thursday in Orlando, Florida, with ousted president Donald Trump its headline speaker, appearing on Sunday in his first public engagement since leaving the White House for Mar-a-Lago a month ago.
This year’s gathering, entitled “America Uncancelled”, is likely to be unusually fraught given that the Republican Party is currently mired in internal conflict following Mr Trump’s election defeat and last month’s US Capitol riot, with pro-Trump loyalists and establishment moderates locked in a feud that could determine its future.
But a letter circulated by GOP senator Rick Scott this week argued that the “Republican civil war is cancelled” following the close of the “political theatre” of Mr Trump’s second impeachment, a sentiment House leaders Kevin McCarthy and Liz Cheney assented with, she somewhat reluctantly after declaring the ex-president should not “be playing a role in the future of the party or the country”.
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of this year’s CPAC gathering in Orlando, Florida, headlined by ex-president Donald Trump as the Republican Party weighs its future following November’s election defeat.
Joe Sommerlad25 February 2021 11:51