CPAC 2021 - live: Gold Trump statue unveiled as Republican summit branded ‘Woodstock for election liars’
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The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) opened on Thursday in Orlando, Florida, with ousted president Donald Trump as its headline speaker to appear on Sunday in his first public engagement since leaving the White House for Mar-a-Lago a month ago.
Mr Trump is widely expected to announce a 2024 presidential run during his speech at the four-day gathering, a prospect dismissed by his White House successor Joe Biden.
The event is themed “America Uncancelled” but one former Trump ally, ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley, herself seems to have been cancelled by conservatives after being excluded from the confirmed speakers list. Ms Haley was reportedly snubbed by the president after she spoke out against his role in the US Capitol riot.
This year's CPAC is likely to be unusually fraught given that the Republican Party is currently mired in internal conflict following the riot, with pro-Trump loyalists and establishment moderates locked in a feud that could determine its future.
Despite a letter circulated by GOP senator Rick Scott this week argued that the “Republican civil war is cancelled”, Marjorie Taylor Greene stoked the flames of conflict by calling her colleagues like Liz Cheney, who turned on Mr Trump to back his impeachment, “fools” disconnected from the party's base.
