BIt takes more than an hour for Donald Trump to hit the nerve of the audience for the first time. It’s the loudest topic these days, driving his followers off their chairs and making them applaud several times: the alleged “gender ideology”. The speakers at the CPAC meeting of America’s right-wing conservatives have been working on it since Thursday. Again and again they sneered at the crowd about what their pronouns were: “Fuck my ass” and “USA”, for example. Actually, it’s about people expressing the pronouns they want to be addressed with. For example, those who do not identify with any of the binary genders.
When Trump entered the topic as the closing speaker on Saturday evening – albeit without joining the series of pronoun “jokes” – his thousand or so supporters raged as expected. The American “youth” is the catchphrase of the three-day event. One must “take back power from the left-wing crazies who are indoctrinating our youth,” says Trump. He speaks of “Marxist teachers’ associations”. School prayer is forbidden, but drag shows are everywhere. “You can’t teach the Bible, but you can teach children that America is evil and that men can get pregnant.”
Fight against trans and LGBTQ rights
At least now Trump has the attention of the vast majority. Thousands of his supporters have gathered in the ballroom of the Hilton hotel, many wearing the typical red caps with the “Make America Great Again” lettering on their heads and the American flag in all imaginable variants on clothing on their bodies. The hall is more crowded than it has been since the conference began on Thursday, but there are still seats in the back rows.
Republicans and evangelicals have recently taken up the fight against trans and LGBTQI rights. For example, after a party convention in Texas at the end of June, Republicans passed a resolution that called homosexuality an “abnormal way of life” and opposed “all efforts to recognize transgender identity”. In addition, Texas Republicans called for a ban on sex reassignment treatments for anyone under the age of 21. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wanted to pursue child molestation charges against parents who may provide sex reassignment medical care to their trans children. That was temporarily stopped in court. Several schools across the country have banned LGBTQ-related books.
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Trump also says there must be strict bans on teaching “inappropriate” content to schoolchildren across the country, and parents’ rights must be defended. “No teacher should be allowed to teach our children about transgender issues without parental approval,” Trump says, to loud approval. There must be “strict bans on the transmission of inappropriate” content across the country. Finally, Trump joins the demand of his then Secretary of Education Betsy Devos a few weeks ago: “We should abolish the Department of Education.”
The cheers of the audience could hardly have been louder if Trump had announced his renewed candidacy for the 2024 presidential election – which he does not do this evening. Instead, he again leaves it at an allusion. He says: “Maybe we have to do it again.” He couldn’t stay at home “because I love my country and the people”. In an anonymous online poll at CPAC, 69 percent supported Trump as the presidential nominee – well ahead of Ron de Santis, the governor of Florida, with 24 percent approval.
On Saturday evening, Trump mentioned all the usual hot topics: the alleged “invasion” of migrants from Mexico, the allegedly stolen presidential election, crime in cities. On a clip at the beginning he says: “We are a nation in decline”, America is a “failing nation”. A black and white video is running on the screens. It’s about inflation, high energy costs, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the alleged legal prosecution of political opponents in America. “We are a nation where free speech is no longer permitted,” viewers hear Trump say. “We are a nation hostile to liberty and faith.”
After two and a half minutes, the video switches to color footage. Now Trump promises that soon “we will be great again”. No mountain cannot be climbed, no victory cannot be won. “We will not give in”, he says, “we will never give in”. They are tyrants to fight.