The Daily Fuckup

The Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on March 3, 2023, made the same point over and over: Donald Trump was not on the stage, but he was still in the room. Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo both used their remarks to put a little distance between themselves and the former president, but neither one came close to an open break.

Haley, who had already launched a presidential campaign, told the crowd Republicans needed to stop losing elections and make room for a younger generation of leadership. That line drew heckling and Trump chants from people in the audience, which underscored how tightly the conference remained bound to him. Pompeo, then still a possible 2024 contender, also aimed careful criticism at Trump without picking a direct fight.

The event showed the shape of the Republican field at that moment: some figures were willing to hint at a post-Trump future, but they were doing it in front of a base that still treated loyalty to Trump as the default test. CPAC did not produce a clean verdict on who might follow him. It did show how hard it was, in March 2023, for any Republican to criticize him without paying a price in the room.