CPAC Opens With Conservatives Publicly Split Over the Iran War

CPAC opened Wednesday in Grapevine, Texas, at a perilous political moment for President Donald Trump, with open division on the right over the war he launched in Iran. While Trump maintains broad support among conservatives, the conflict is more than a wrinkle for activists drawn to his "America First" campaign pledge against getting involved in foreign conflicts.

A new AP-NORC poll shows about 59% of Americans think the military action in Iran is excessive, a figure that hangs over the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, where thousands of activists, influencers and Republican lawmakers gathered for the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Among the featured speakers at the four-day event is longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, who warned on his War Room podcast this month that should the war become "a hard slog," it could cost the GOP conservative voters ahead of the midterms. "We are going to bleed support," Bannon said. The warning carried real weight: at least 13 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the war began, and six crew members of an Air Force refueling aircraft died when their plane crashed in western Iraq while supporting operations against Iran, with Trump attending the casualty return at Dover Air Force Base on March 18.

Not every speaker shares Bannon's anxiety. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who supports the war, is also on the agenda at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center. "I think President Trump was exactly right to act to protect Americans," Cruz said last week in a CBS News interview. Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz's scheduled speaking slot is a reminder of the disagreement among some conservatives about the U.S. military alliance with Israel against Iran.

"This is obviously going to be a hot topic," said John Gizzi, a CPAC veteran and columnist for the conservative media outlet Newsmax, who noted the possibility of greater U.S. involvement over an uncertain length of time.

The divisions at CPAC mirror a rupture that has already reached inside the administration itself. A senior U.S. intelligence official appointed by Trump abruptly stepped down last week, citing misgivings about the war with Iran. Joe Kent, who had been serving as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted his resignation letter on X, contradicting the administration's basis for launching the war and imploring Trump to end it. Trump said it was a "good thing" Kent resigned, deriding him as "very weak on security." Kent is the highest-level official to leave the Trump administration over the president's decision to wage war on Iran.

Eighty-six percent of conservatives said they approved of Trump's job performance in a February AP-NORC poll, numbers that suggest the base remains largely loyal even as prominent voices defect. Texas Rep. Steve Toth, who plans to attend CPAC, suggested that Trump's support remains robust among conservatives but that Republican messaging on the war could be stronger. "From MAGA people, for the most part, I don't hear frustration with the president," said Toth, who beat incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw in Texas' March 3 primary. "I don't know that we're doing a great job at communicating the full ramifications."

The contrast with last year's gathering is stark. One year ago, Trump vowed to "forge a new and lasting political majority" as Elon Musk wielded a chainsaw to symbolize how the administration was slashing the government workforce and red tape. Another stark reminder of the contrast with last year is Texas's unresolved Senate primary, a particular political headache for Trump. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is challenging four-term GOP Sen. John Cornyn, not only is attending the event but has one of the event's premier speaking roles, the Ronald Reagan Dinner on Friday evening. Cornyn is not attending the Texas conference.

Neither Trump nor Vice President JD Vance had been publicly announced as speaking to the gathering. With Bannon warning of midterm blowback and a former counterterrorism director publicly declaring the war unjust, the four days in Grapevine will test whether the conservative movement can hold together behind a conflict that is already rewriting its internal politics.