Trump will speak at CPAC
(CNN) – Business and reality show star Donald Trump will speak at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, according to press release from the event's organizer that was distributed by Trump's spokesman Tuesday.
In the release, the American Conservative Union's president Al Cardenas called Trump "an American patriot and success story with a massive following among small government conservatives."
"I look forward to welcoming him back to the CPAC stage next week. Mr. Trump's previous CPAC appearance was hugely popular among our attendees and we expect it will be even more popular this year," Cardenas wrote.
Trump last spoke at CPAC in 2011, when he was publically flirting with a bid for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. He eventually said he wouldn't seek the nomination since it would mean giving up his reality show "The Apprentice."
That didn't stop Trump from playing a vocal role in the presidential contest, coming out in support of eventual GOP nominee Mitt Romney at an event in Las Vegas. He also helped fundraise for Romney.
Trump also revived his "birther" criticism of President Barack Obama last spring, dismissing the birth certificate released by the White House in 2011 showing Obama was born in Hawaii as fraudulent. Contemporaneously published newspaper announcements also noted the birth in the Aloha State.
During his speech at the event two years ago, Trump criticized Ron Paul as unelectable, eliciting boos from supporters of the then-Texas congressman.
CPAC is considered a key speaking engagement for any Republican thinking about running for president in 2016. Politicians who are thought to be considering presidential bids and are on the CPAC speaking list include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Also on the roster are Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who was a 2012 Republican presidential candidate; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Mitt Romney, the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee, will also speak at the conference.
But there has also been a notable omission from the speaking list: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. A person close to CPAC said last month Christie wasn't invited to speak at the conservative conference.
CNN's Steve Brusk and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
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All the conservative gop garbage will be at this event we should consider a drone strikes !!!
Trump but not Christie? Further proof that the GOP is losing support from a majority of Americans. The best chance the party has is for the moderates to break off from the extremists to start a new party that is more mainstream and represents the majority. CPAC has lost all credibility.
How many clowns are they allowing to speak at their event? What a joke and the redumblicans fall for it every time.
.......Hey, who is that guy with an orange squirrel on top of his head?
Show me your birth certificate and your horse hair!
Wow, they are making this easy for the DNC. Trump is a nut and everyone but CPAC and the fringe know it.
The gathering of fools grows.
Are they going to yell at an empty chair again too? They just never learn.
Donald Trump and the Rev Al Sharpton, two of the biggest buffoons should join together and run in 2016. Maybe "the Rev" can get Tswana Brawley to serve as his poster child. Al is hoping the world will forget. Guess what Al....it won't!
@Rudy NYC
Obama's trying to break this country. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
The circus is back in town!
Man! Christmas comes earlier & earlier every year!
*** Donald Trump is would make a great president. Just think a president that actually has experience in creating jobs. That would be a great. I only wish that he had carried the conservative banner in the last election. ****
LMOA! What an imbecile. I hope that he had too. There might not be a single GOP politician left in office today.
"you people better wake up – it could be one of you sitting next to a crazy person with a knife on a plane – thanks to Obama!"
Get psychiatric help today, you sad little half-wit.
Sound about right
Trump is such a gas bag. He will only prove Bobby Jindals point about republicans saying stupid stuff. Republicans he is not helping you. Dump the bum.
CPAC is now offically breathing their own fumes. To complete the insanity, they should award FOX the political pollster of the year award.
Buc
The gathering of fools grows.
==================
Yes.
Yes. It. Does.
You'd think GOPers would eventually get the message. Apparently Rush and Company have really, really brainwashed them into thinking they are still relevent.
Sheesh!! Can CPAC pack that place with any more clowns?
CPAC keeps a trough behind the podium filled with antiseptic so the speakers don't make themselves sick putting their feet in their pieholes.
Whew! For a minute there I thought maybe the Democrats would have a problem in the 2016 election. Not to worry though – we're safe.
Donald Cluck, you are fired!
Move to Republistan, deep in the Pacific ocean.
Take CPAC and the rest of the crazies with you.
@MC
The ones who need serious psychiatric help are the ones who voted this marxist into our White House.
Donald is not a conservative. He is an actor. He will say and do whatever it takes to stay in the limelight. He only cares about politics because it gets him attention.
You want him, conservatives? You can keep him. Just keep him away from the rest of us, ok?
Trump....he doesn't get my vote and I turn the sound off when he is on TV.