The Conference That Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
Every year, CPAC is supposed to be a rally. A reaffirmation. Conservative America gathers, the speeches get applause, and everyone goes home reminded that they are on the right side of history and the right side of the aisle. This year was different. CPAC 2026, which concluded Saturday in Grapevine, Texas, was something closer to a reckoning. [1] The subject on everyone's mind was not immigration, not taxes, not the administrative state. It was Iran. Specifically: whether the joint U.S.-Israel military operation launched on February 28 — which has now stretched into its thirtieth day — is the thing that conservatives actually voted for when they voted for Donald Trump. A growing number of them are concluding the answer is no. [1] That is not a comfortable conclusion to arrive at. And the establishment would prefer you not arrive at it. But intellectual honesty has always been part of what separates conservative analysis from partisan cheerleading, so let us be honest.
The divide at CPAC was generational in shape but ideological at its core. Older attendees, many shaped by the post-9/11 consensus that Iran was an existential threat requiring eventual military response, showed baseline support for the operation. They framed it as Trump finally doing what three previous administrations had lacked the courage to do. Younger attendees — the cohort that came of age reading Pat Buchanan, watching Tucker Carlson, and voting for a candidate who explicitly promised to end the era of Middle Eastern military adventurism — were considerably less enthusiastic. [1] The phrase "America First" was invoked at this conference more than once in a tone of reproach rather than celebration. That should give the party pause.
