Let’s focus on beating the Communists in America. People have to feel like this economy is getting better, and that Trump has the medicine to beat the Biden disease. If we can win that argument, we’re going to win the midterms.” — Matt Schlapp, CPAC Chairman
CPAC in Dallas was not a slogan factory. It was a live readout on where the conservative movement stands, what the country is actually arguing about, and what the legacy press keeps cutting out of the frame. The ballroom was packed so full the fire marshal kicked people out twice, and President Trump was not even in the building. That is what the media missed.
On this episode of The Homeland, Dean Cain and the team recap CPAC and dig into the themes that defined it: automatic opposition to everything this president does, the class realignment reshaping both parties, free speech, rural America’s quiet crisis, and the military campaign in Iran that legacy outlets cannot bring themselves to call a victory.
Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Not a Joke. It Is a Pattern.
Trump secures the border, and the left screams defund ICE. Murder rates fall to the lowest since 1900, and nobody covers it. Fentanyl deaths drop off a cliff because narco terrorists are being eliminated, and the coverage is silent. Trump removes Maduro in a flawless military operation, and they call it a kidnapping while Venezuelans cheer in the streets.
“No matter what President Trump does, the left tries to characterize everything as a failure,” Dean Cain said in his opening monologue. The point is not that every decision is perfect. The point is that the reaction is automatic, and Americans can see it.
For 30 years, both parties in New York demanded the Super Connector between New York City and New Jersey. A trillion dollars’ worth of infrastructure that every politician from Daniel Patrick Moynihan to Kathy Hochul championed throughout their careers. Trump offered to deliver it with one condition: put his name on it. They refused. Thirty years of begging for their constituents, and they walked away over a name on a sign. That is not principled opposition. That is reflex dressed up as outrage.
The Conservative Movement Showed Up Without Its Biggest Draw
CPAC’s theme this year was action over words, and Matt Schlapp chose it deliberately. “For the last eight years, Donald Trump’s appearance has dominated CPAC,” Schlapp said. “We do have to figure out what we’re going to do when he’s not around to show up to everything. I was very impressed that the movement stood up.”
The Star-Spangled Banner opened each day of the conference, and every person in the building stood at attention without exception. The energy was electric from morning to night, and the messages coming from speakers across the lineup reflected a movement that feels unified in a way many Americans rarely experience in public life anymore.
One of the most significant and underreported moments was the presence of the Iranian diaspora, there in force to support Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. Pahlavi delivered the line that stopped the room: “What if instead of chanting ‘Death to America,’ the people in Iran were chanting ‘God Bless America?’” For anyone who lived through the 1979 hostage crisis, that sentence landed like something close to a spiritual experience. Schlapp, who has been speaking with Pahlavi for years, believes the crown prince will play a meaningful role in bringing freedom to Iran, whether or not he leads the country directly.
The Class Realignment Nobody Will Admit
Sam Goodall, a Washington lobbyist and political strategist who has spent 30 years on Capitol Hill, laid out a reality that the legacy media still refuses to acknowledge. The conventional wisdom that Republicans are the party of the wealthy and Democrats represent the working class is not just outdated. It is factually wrong.
Kamala Harris won one demographic cleanly in the last election: the wealthiest voters. The 30 poorest congressional districts in the country are represented mostly by Republicans. The wealthiest districts are dominated entirely by Democrats. Goodall wrote two research papers, Class Dismissed, parts one and two, specifically to show corporate clients that the political terrain has shifted beneath their feet and they need to stop pretending otherwise.
“My grandmother didn’t escape Eastern Europe for her grandson to be called a Nazi because he votes for smaller government,” Goodall said. He described Washington as increasingly tribal, where policy debates have been replaced by team-sport behavior and where the committee process that once built legislation through consensus has broken down entirely over partisanship.
Free Speech and the End of the Media Chokehold
The media environment changed when platforms like X made it possible to hear a full thought rather than a compressed cable segment. “Elon by buying X just kind of showed the world what else is out there,” Goodall said. “It changed news. It changed the way a lot of people are perceiving politics these days. Podcasts give you the opportunity to get a real full thought across rather than a three-minute snippet on CNN. That means they’re less in control.”
When people can hear complete conversations without editorial filtering, it becomes significantly harder to spin half-stories into accepted narratives. That shift is permanent, and it terrifies the institutions that once held a monopoly on framing public discourse.
Forgotten America Is Not a Talking Point
Jen Pellegrino of Defend Forgotten America grew up in rural upstate New York, 20 minutes from the Canadian border and two hours from the nearest airport. Farmland, dairy farmers, blue-collar families, and a deeply conservative community that bears no resemblance to what most people picture when they hear “New York.” That is the America she fights for.
“A hospital closes, and that’s the backbone of a lot of these communities,” Pellegrino said. “They’re losing jobs. You’re losing access to health care. If you drive through a lot of rural parts of the country, they’ve seen better days.” Her organization focuses on turning the concerns of rural and small-urban Americans into meaningful policy changes, because distance and scarcity are real problems that cannot be solved with talking points from Washington.
These are communities that were hollowed out when fossil fuel jobs disappeared overnight under the previous administration. Mining towns in Pennsylvania and West Virginia where the pipeline was killed and clean-energy mandates left entire populations without income. The fentanyl followed. The meth followed. The social collapse followed. And nobody in Washington was paying attention because these places do not generate cable news ratings.
Media Credibility and the Search for Truth
“You look at polling over the last several years and their credibility is in the tank,” Pellegrino said of legacy outlets. “People are changing the channels. They’re looking to alternative sources, looking to independent journalists. That’s what’s changing the landscape right now.”
She also expressed hope for the country’s future, particularly around the 250th anniversary of the United States. “We live in the greatest country in the world, and we need to celebrate that,” she said. “It just breaks my heart when I see people trashing the American flag, when I see athletes kneeling for the national anthem, when I see people turning their backs on this country.”
Iran: One Month, Total Decapitation
President Trump put the conflict in perspective during his address to the nation. World War II took almost four years of American involvement. Korea, over three. Vietnam, over 19 years. Iraq, almost nine. The campaign against Iran has taken roughly one month.
In that time, the United States has eliminated three levels of Iranian leadership, destroyed their navy and air force, taken out their radar capabilities entirely, and neutralized their nuclear program. The world’s number one state sponsor of terror has been defanged in weeks, and all the legacy media can talk about is a temporary rise in gas prices.
“There’s always a cost,” Trey Lindsey said, quoting a senior enlisted leader from his time in special operations. “And sometimes the cost of not doing something is far greater than the cost of doing something. Not necessarily measured in dollars and cents, either.” Consider the alternative: Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, mounts it on an ICBM capable of reaching London or Paris, and launches it. What happens to fuel prices then? What happens to the world economy? A few weeks of higher gas prices is not a strategic argument against eliminating a nuclear threat. It is a distraction from one of the most lopsided military victories in modern history.
What Must Be Resolved
Michael Castelli outlined the three issues that must be settled before this chapter can close. First, leadership of whatever regime or government emerges in Iran’s vacuum. Second, control of Iran’s energy infrastructure so they cannot use oil revenue to rebuild military capability. Third, securing or permanently burying the uranium stockpile so that the nuclear threat does not resurface in five years.
President Trump indicated a timeline of two to three weeks to wrap up major operations. This will not be a forever war. He campaigned on ending them, and he meant it.
The Ken Paxton Signal
CPAC held a straw poll for the Texas Senate race, and Schlapp made it straightforward. He invited both Ken Paxton and incumbent John Cornyn to make their case to the audience. Paxton showed up. Cornyn did not.
“When one guy shows up and the other guy doesn’t, it makes it really simple to know who you’re going to vote for,” Schlapp said. Paxton won the straw poll overwhelmingly, and CPAC endorsed him on the final day of the conference. Schlapp’s prediction is direct: “He’s going to win.”
The broader message is about showing up and doing the work rather than coasting on incumbency. The movement is watching, and it is rewarding action over tenure.
Action Over Words
Schlapp closed the conversation with a directive that doubles as CPAC’s thesis for the midterms: stop attacking each other in public with venom. Disagree on policy, debate specifics, but stop handing ammunition to people who want the entire coalition to collapse.
“Let’s focus on beating the Communists in America,” he said. “People have to feel like this economy is getting better, and that Trump has the medicine to beat the Biden disease. If we can win that argument, we’re going to win the midterms.”
CPAC is now operating on five continents in over 12 countries, with new chapters announced in the United Kingdom and Germany. The conservative movement is not shrinking or retreating to its corners. It is organizing internationally, filling ballrooms without its biggest star present, and building a coalition broad enough to include former Democrats, the Iranian diaspora, Maha advocates, and rural Americans who have been ignored for decades. The question is whether that coalition can hold together long enough to deliver results. Schlapp believes it can, as long as the infighting stays behind closed doors and the focus stays on action.
Watch the full episode on Proud American Studios.
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