Some of the Republican Party’s biggest names, including likely presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence, have decided not to attend this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Some might have been put off the event in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against its organizer, Matt Schlapp, or possibly even just the fact that the conference has skewed so much toward the MAGA wing of the party that a gold Trump statue has been seen at the event in previous years. But the former president says he knows the real reason why his rivals aren’t going. “The only reason certain ‘candidates’ won’t be going to CPAC is because the crowds have no interest in anything they have to say,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. “They’ve heard it all before, and don’t want to hear it again. But my speech, on Saturday night, is already a sold out ‘monster.’” Trump told attendees that his headline speech is going to be “about the fact that, obviously, our Country is going to ‘HELL,’ and how to fix it.”
