OXON HILL, Md.—If you wanted to take the temperature at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), you could do a lot worse than talking to Luke Twombly.
Twombly, a 31-year-old consultant who was once communications director for the Republican Party of Texas, was wearing a cowboy hat as he walked past the colorful booths at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center just outside Washington.
“I think people are tired of the Ukraine War,” he told The Epoch Times. He disagreed with the idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to reestablish the Soviet Union, instead likening him to a tsar seeking “to influence, basically, Orthodox Slavic countries that were historically in the Russian zone.”
Under President Donald Trump, Twombly said, the United States is refocusing on the Western Hemisphere, where more of its core interests lie.
“America, it’s not [the] global policeman anymore,” Twombly added.
CPAC, held Feb. 19 through 22, took place amidst Ukraine-Russia peace overtures from the Trump administration, including talks between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Trump team also sought to forge a minerals deal with Ukraine ahead of a visit from its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Two nearby conferences, the Principles First Summit and Freedom Conservatism, drew Ukraine hawks concerned about Russian aggression and, in many cases, Trump. Yet, CPAC—the main event for conservatives alongside AmericaFest—revealed a national and international right-of-center world that has grown increasingly skeptical of prolonging the conflict. Trump’s push for peace with Russia met with widespread, though not unqualified, support.
On Feb. 21, Trump administration diplomat Ric Grenell questioned objections that have been raised to Trump meeting Putin without involving Zelenskyy, saying the Trump team had met with Ukrainians numerous times without Russians present.
“I think the American people are really frustrated with Zelenskyy. I think that there’s a big frustration that he’s not making great choices for peace,” Grenell said.
He said that Putin is a dictator but added that the Trump administration’s foreign policy excludes regime change.
Away from the stage, American conservatives mostly voiced opposition to the ongoing conflict and support for Trump’s approach.
“There’s a time for war, but there’s a time for peace,” Lynch told The Epoch Times. “We’ve got to take care of stuff right here on our home front.”
Betsy Pfund, who attended CPAC with the Republican Women of Baltimore County, described Trump’s anti-Zelenskyy rhetoric as “a negotiating strategy.”
“He talks big, and he throws an idea out there in the public square,” she said, adding that she found his style appealing despite its roughness around the edges. “I like the masculinity. I feel so much safer.”
One American attendee who stood out was Clare Lopez. Lopez, the founder of Lopez Liberty LLC and a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, told The Epoch Times she would be glad to assist the Trump administration.
Lopez said Russia’s invasion violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and demanded a response, particularly in light of its strategically critical location.
“Ukraine is Europe. On the other side of Ukraine is NATO,” she said, adding that a success for Putin would jeopardize Poland and the Baltic states. “Every piece of territory he conquers further to the west extends the border of his Russian Empire.”
World View From CPAC
For the most part, CPAC’s international crowd reflected growing skepticism of the continuation of the Russia–Ukraine war.Miklos Szantho, who leads Hungary’s Centre for Fundamental Rights, praised Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for “pushing for an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine” and “going against the progressive warmongers.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni lauded work toward “a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine—“a peace that can only be built with the contribution of all, but above all with strong leadership”—before praising Trump.
Gabriel Durand, a member of French lawmaker Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, told The Epoch Times his party seeks “a Europe of cooperation and nations like [French President] Charles de Gaulle wanted.”
“I think we have to be at equal distance from [the] United States and from Russia,” he said.
Not all of the European Right seek the same equidistance. Though many parties on the scene were receptive to a Ukraine peace deal, and even to stronger ties with Russia, the Poles, repeatedly dominated and even partitioned by Russia in recent centuries, remain extremely wary of making deals with Putin.
In his CPAC speech, Mateusz Morawiecki, a Polish lawmaker and former prime minister from the conservative Law and Justice Party, described the Ukraine war as one of several “existing difficulties” before saying his country could be a stable bulwark “between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea,” allied with the United States to prevent Europe from bowing to Russian and Chinese dominance.
Christine Anderson, a German member of the European Parliament from the Alternative for Germany party, told The Epoch Times that Polish worries about Russia are understandable given how much they suffered during the Soviet period. She seemed hopeful that her country could pursue a different approach despite values that diverge from those of Russia.
“If you as a nation take your own interest seriously, you have to secure energy. You have to make sure that you live in some kind of amicable way with your neighbors. And Russia is a neighbor of Europe,” she said.
She described Trump as “the only one that actually has the will” to end the war in Ukraine.
Geadis Geadi, a Cypriot MEP from the nationalist ELAM party, told The Epoch Times that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was reminiscent of Turkey’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus, which led to the establishment of North Cyprus, a country only recognized by Turkey.
“We must protect the international law,” he said. He added that the war likely would not have started with Trump in the White House and that “we must bring peace.” Geadi said the United States, like Cyprus, has its own legitimate interests.
Representing the other side of the Eurasian landmass, South Korean conservatives at CPAC warned of Chinese influence on their politics, alleging ties to the recent impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol following his brief declaration of martial law.
Chris Oh, a student at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, said he expected the Trump administration to support South Korea despite its less interventionist stance in some areas.
As CPAC was taking place, U.S. fighter jets and at least one B-1B bomber participated in a joint exercise with South Korea’s military over the Korean peninsula, the first during the second Trump administration.
“I don’t think the Trump administration would like China to take over Korea,” Oh said.
Ukraine Hawks
As CPAC unfolded at the Gaylord resort, the Principles First Summit kicked off on Feb. 21 at a Washington hotel.Although the two conferences were separated by just a few miles, the rhetoric on Russia, Trump, and Ukraine was light years apart.
The three-day event attracted a mix of Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans, including businessman Mark Cuban, writer Jonah Goldberg, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former congressman Adam Kinzinger.
Kinzinger, who was introduced with a quotation from the late Sen. John McCain, told the crowd that “one of the things that is most common here is support for Ukraine.” The statement was greeted with sustained applause.
“We know that it hasn’t been the model of liberal democracy over the last thirty years, but we would certainly say that it’s going in those directions,” Kinzinger added.
Amid Trump’s talk of a mineral deal with Ukraine that could help compensate the United States for its aid—now in limbo after the Oval Office exchange—Kinzinger urged pro-Ukraine Republicans to “say no” until Trump relents on Ukraine-related policies, including moves that would “force Ukraine to pay us back.”
Christie’s 2024 presidential run was marked by vocal criticism of Trump, which set him apart from most other Republicans in the race.
He was no less scathing at Principles First, asserting, among other things, that the president had authoritarian tendencies.
Stephen F. Hayes of the Dispatch asked Christie if the United States under Trump had changed its loyalties from Ukraine to Russia.
Christie replied, “There’s a lot there, but the answer is yes.”
He said he had warned Zelenskyy, whom he visited while campaigning, that a Trump victory would spell “big trouble” for the Ukrainian president. According to Christie, the leader responded with nods and a wink.
Unlike Principles First, the Freedom Conservatism Conference did not directly compete with CPAC. All its panels took place at the National Press Club on Feb. 24, two days after the big event ended.
The atmosphere was clubby, dominated by think tanks and policy mavens rather than the politicians and populist content creators at CPAC.
It advocates continued American leadership of the world, and it describes immigration as “a principal driver of American prosperity and achievement” while affirming the country’s right to defend its borders and maintain an immigration system tied to “the interests and values of American citizens.”
The Freedom Conservatism ended up somewhere in between CPAC and Principles First—neither an anti-Trump shindig nor a celebration of the new U.S. president.
Another was Christian commentator Carrie Sheffield, author of the 2024 memoir “Motorhome Prophecies,” and a conservative who opposed Trump in 2016 but swung toward him during his first term.
She likened the different conferences around Washington to different flavors of ice cream.
“I think it’s great to like an array of flavors,” she told The Epoch Times. “Iron sharpens iron, and that’s how we get the best ideas.”
Like others, Sheffield pointed out that Russia did not invade Ukraine while Trump was in office and said Trump wants peace. She disputed the notion that the president’s peace talk amounted to appeasement of Putin.
“In fact, I actually think Trump is very much like Winston Churchill,” she said.
On stage, Goldberg disagreed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for not describing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as unprovoked. Hegseth instead described the genesis of the current war as “a very complicated situation.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who in the past has feuded with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) over his support for Ukraine aid, took aim at former President Joe Biden, saying he had failed to clarify to the American people “why we’re back in Ukraine” and adding that the Trump administration now had to “clean up as best they can.”
“The president is in a situation where he still needs Putin to come to the table. I think that’s where a lot of this excessive flattery had come from, because I’m not sure how else to explain it,” said Crenshaw, who endorsed Trump ahead of the 2024 race.
Asked about grounds for optimism, the Texas lawmaker said that it is extremely geopolitically challenging “to screw up our country, no matter how hard we try and how many stupid decisions we make.”
Another speaker, Hoover Institution economist John Cochrane, told The Epoch Times that the conservative world has its own “deep state,” in evidence at the Freedom Conservatism event.
“The deep state is libertarian free-market,” he said.
Speaking a few days after CPAC’s international cast descended on the Gaylord, Cochrane said Trump embodied a worldwide “vibe shift.”
“This is bigger than Reagan. This is bigger than Calvin Coolidge. This is the size of [Franklin] Roosevelt, in the opposite direction,” he said.
Cochrane was critical of Trump’s “dictator” comments about Zelenskyy, saying they marked the president’s “first major unforced error.”
“I’m usually not interventionist but a big Ukraine hawk,” he said, describing most post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy as “a bloody mess.”
Like Lopez, he suggested he would be happy to serve in the administration.
“I sit by the phone,” he said with a chuckle.
