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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Tuesday, March 31st, I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that learned a group of January 6th insurrectionists are suing the federal government for what Politico describes as, quote, “physical and emotional injuries.” The insurrectionists are asking for more than $18 million. You know what? With Trump in office, they just might get it. [music break] On today’s show, good news. Transportation security administration workers started receiving some back pay for all of their hard work. And TMZ is giving members of Congress the tabloid treatment. Lindsey Graham is the new Lindsay Lohan. But let’s start with the Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC. Over the past decade or so, CPAC has become a massive gathering of right-wing power brokers. Everyone who wanted to be a big deal in GOP politics needed to make an appearance, which may be why you saw Elon Musk waving a chainsaw at last year’s conference. Or President Donald Trump at every single CPAC for a decade. But Trump didn’t go this year. Actually, no Trumps were at this year’s CPAC, not even Tiffany. Neither were Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Instead, Trumpers had the pleasure of listening to the man with the golden voice, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who told the single most unbelievable story about Donald Trump that I have ever heard in my life. 

[clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] During the campaign I was on the airplane with them and we were sitting across the table from each other eating McDonald’s. [laughter] Drinking diet coke. And uh he we started talking about Syria and he got a placemat and he turned it on its back and then he took a sharpie and he drew a perfect map of the mid east. And then he put the troop strength of every country on every border on that map and it just it challenged a lot of the assumptions that I had been told about him. 

Jane Coaston: Sure. But this year’s lackluster CPAC seems to mirror a MAGA movement that’s looking increasingly unmoored. As Trump’s polling continues to decline amidst economic malaise and an unpopular war, the political movement entirely centered on his wants and needs is beginning to fray at the edges. Lots of people at CPAC support everything Trump does, including the Iran War. But I’m wondering, are there enough of those people to counterbalance all of the people who voted for Trump in 2024, and are now experiencing serious buyer’s remorse. Ben Jacobs is a Washington-based political reporter who has been going to CPAC for years. We talked about his trip to the 2026 convention and what made this year so different from the others. Ben, welcome to What a Day. 

Ben Jacobs: Jane, thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: In your experience, what is CPAC typically like and who actually goes? What is it supposed to be doing for conservatives? 

Ben Jacobs: CPAC has had many functions throughout the years. I mean, we can go back that it started in the ’70s. These were the insurgent conservatives rallying behind Ronald Reagan, taking on the deep state of left liberal Gerald Ford. Um. In more recent times as the conservative movement sort of has subsumed the Republican party, it’s become a factual battleground a little bit. In the 2010s, you had straw polls where Ron Paul wing of the party would would win, that this would be swarmed with young Americans for liberty, these young, you know, Ron Paul kids, later Rand Paul kids. And it sort of it was a sense of sort of some of where the vibes were. They didn’t sort of have the base of the movement. Ron Paul was not winning the [?] Dutch farmers in Northwest Iowa, but it was a sense of you know where some of the activists were. This was sort of young people. This also was a big trade convention, that there were candidates looking for donors, consultants looking for candidates, that this was a big place to meet and greet. In recent years, it’s become very much a one-stop, one [?] shop for Trump. This is MAGA all the way. It’s not really a place where things are debated. This is just pure MAGA. You are as likely to see someone who stormed the Capitol on January 6th as you are someone who voted for Ron DeSantis, let alone Nikki Haley in 2024. 

Jane Coaston: I know Donald Trump wasn’t there, no Trumps were there. But why do you think it was just so different this year? I’ve been reading a lot of the reporting and even right-wing outlets are saying that it was a complete train wreck and juiceless. 

Ben Jacobs: Look, it’s been going in this direction for for a while. The organization has gone through its own internal struggles um with you know allegations and misconduct against Matt Schlapp, who leads it, that there’s been sort of Turning Point USA rising up and taking a lot of the mojo that, you know, to paraphrase Daniel Day-Lewis, TPUSA drinks AIPAC’s milkshake. There’s not many students at this point. That this is sort of a narrow and narrower slice, and this is really a legacy brand. This is a vestigial brand of something that used to mean something much bigger in American politics, not quite there anymore. I think the best example of this is Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform Party, used to be a CPAC regular. Now he’s potentially the next prime minister. He was nowhere to be found. But instead, Liz Truss kept on appearing on panels and at parties. Liz Truss, of course, who was prime minister for 40 days and lost a popularity contest to a head of lettuce. That’s, that’s the sense of where this is that this is trading on nostalgia in name brand as opposed to having any juice. That the juice has slowly dried out and once you lost Trump, that sort of made it official. 

Jane Coaston: What issue or topic appeared to be most prominent for those who actually attended CPAC? 

Ben Jacobs: If the panels were a lot about rallying around Trump, the speakers rallying round Trump, there was a lot of concern about Sharia law. One Texas elected official went right into pretty blatant Islamophobia. You know, there was stuff about trans issues, but Iran, the military conflict in Iran, this this was not something that was debating conflict and even the people who were against our involvement, the involvement in the conflict, were sort of guarded about it. Matt Gaetz weren’t against ground troops in Iran, that it’s sort of nothing about where we are now. And Steve Bannon just sort of gloomed darkly about, you know, the idea of your sons and daughters could be going off to fight along the straits of Hormuz without sort of weighing in, but, you, know, trying to be clear where he was. But this was at least a quarter Iranian monarchists that you know, that normally these things are make America great again, lock her up. This year was Javid Shah. It was, uh, it was a really different event with how much these folks, because Reza Pahlavi, the, uh son of the late Shah, uh was a speaker. And they really swarmed the event. And you know this was as much lion and sun and stars as stars and stripes. 

Jane Coaston: It’s pretty wild that you have an event that is within recent memory so focused on America first and then it’s kind of seems to be taken over by people who are talking–

Ben Jacobs: Yes. 

Jane Coaston: A lot about reclaiming a throne that hasn’t been claimed since 1979. 

Ben Jacobs: Yes. No, and it was of course ironic that Pahlavi was speaking at CPAC as you had liberals at no-kings demonstrations, which made a pretty interesting vibe. I mean CPAC has in recent years become much more international that it’s sort of the idea of Steve Bannon’s populist model UN, but they’re always sort of bits you know they’re chunks of Hungarians, they’re chunks of Brazilians. You know there are a bunch of Salvadorans who showed up in Washington, D.C. to to cheer Bukele, but it wasn’t overwhelming. This really was entirely overwhelming. You drive into the event, there was a set up right outside with alternating Iranian, pre-1979 Iranian flags with the lion and sun and American flags. One day you had a stretch where there was just alternating pictures of Trump, Reza Pahlavi, Bibi, Marco Rubio coming along the way. And then once you got in, this was you know 25% Iranians would be, my guess, like you know that it was sort of really you know distinctly there, and it meant that the room was absolutely packed for Reza Pahlavi, and afterwards it emptied relatively quickly. It was they were there for Pahlavi. They were not there you know to see Rick Grennell or Liz Truss or any of the other sort of usual suspect list CPAC speakers. 

Jane Coaston: When you talk to people and you asked about the Iran war, did it seem like there was any concern about losing the support of those people who weren’t in support of the war? 

Ben Jacobs: I there was, there’s a little bit concern, but look, this is such a pro-Trump crowd, like let’s, let’s double back that, you know, you’re talking about whether people who are ready to overturn the 2020 election have concerns about overturn, overthrowing the Iranian regime. 

Jane Coaston: Good point. 

Ben Jacobs: This is, you, know, people who they may have sort of qualms, like, I don’t know what ground troops, I don’t want this, but they’re trusting in Trump. They’re seeing that there’s master plan. This is about Venezuela and Cuba and oil. They made it through the Access Hollywood tapes, they’re you know, they’re making it through some airstrikes in the Middle East. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, I’ve always thought that the Trump-era CPAC is as close as you can come to what it would be like to go for like, to like a fan convention for Trump. 

Ben Jacobs: Yes. 

Jane Coaston: Now, we mentioned the straw poll a little bit earlier, and that’s one of the historically big parts of CPAC, where attendees put in their picks for their next presidential nominee. This year, Vice President J.D. Vance won. He wasn’t there. Marco Rubio came in second. He also wasn’t there. What conversations did you hear about where the GOP wants to go after Trump? 

Ben Jacobs: I don’t think they were sort of ready to go someplace after Trump, that Trump is still there that they sort of like JD, like certainly like Marco, but this was not this was not future looking. It’s been very interesting that even if you go back to looking at who’s sort of testing the waters a little bit in earlier states, if you go back to this time four years ago, all sorts of people are going to Iowa, all sorts of people are going to New Hampshire. They’re not doing that this time around, even though Trump is at least nominally a lame duck and yeah, I talked to people who rejected the idea Trump’s a lame duck, he’s still in there he has all sorts of power, you know, and this is a particular slice of the Republican party. We shouldn’t assume that this is the average Republican voter, let alone the average Republican primary voter, but you know Trump’s there, Trump’s their guy, he is back and why look that far ahead? 

Jane Coaston: Ben, thank you so much for joining me. 

Ben Jacobs: Thanks for having me Jane.

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Ben Jacobs, a political reporter who wrote about the 2026 CPAC for Slate. We will link to his work in the show notes. Unlike CPAC, we are a malaise-free podcast. So if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

Jane Coaston: Joining me is Crooked’s Washington correspondent, Matt Berg, to talk about the big stories. Hey Matt! 

Matt Berg: Hey Jane. 

Jane Coaston: Matt. Do you remember when Trump said that he could wrap up the war with Iran like super quickly? 

Matt Berg: Oh yeah. 

Jane Coaston: And um everything was going to be super fast and basically we already won and the war is over. Here’s a reporter asking White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for a new estimate on when the war will end on Monday. 

[clip of unknown reporter] And then on Iran, on the timeframe, President Trump initially said about four weeks, Secretary of State Rubio on Friday reportedly said it might be another two to four. Is two to four the current ballpark that the administration is thinking? 

[clip of Karoline Leavitt] With respect to the timeline, again, the President, Commander-in-Chief, the Pentagon has always stated four to six weeks estimated timeline for Operation Epic Fury. We’re on day 30 today, so again, you do the math. 

Jane Coaston: She sounds so self-satisfied and also, so I guess that means that we have two more weeks of war. Is that how this is going to work? What is this, Groundhog Day? And Trump made threats against Iran on Monday, like he does, saying that he might blow up the country’s energy infrastructure and desalination plants without a peace deal soon. And blowing up desalination plants would be a possible war crime under international law even though I know Trump doesn’t care. 

Matt Berg: And that’s not even all that he might do. According to the Wall Street Journal, um he’s considering sending in troops to extract some 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, which is you know, could be risky for a couple of reasons. I mean, first, you’re sending a lot of troops in to do a mission that you don’t know could actually work. And second, you don’t know how long they would even be there. But Jane, remember on Monday, Trump said that peace talks are going great. 

Jane Coaston: Even though the peace talks may not be peace talks, also a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry told reporters that the US proposal for peace was, quote, “unrealistic, illogical, and excessive,” which, um, that just kind of sounds like Donald Trump to me. But uh there’s some kind of good news. Most TSA workers received some back pay Monday following an order from Trump on Friday. Now, Trump could have signed an order to pay TSA weeks ago, but now that he has, Matt, could this shutdown of DHS just go on forever? 

Matt Berg: That is a huge question that everyone in DC is asking right now and no one really has a good answer to. Today is the 46th day of the shutdown and you probably remember that the House and the Senate are on recess until the week of April 14th and there probably will not be any movement on the shutdown until they get back. And its important to remember that the shutdown in the fall broke a record for the longest shutdown in government history. And this one broke that record, was also under a Republican trifecta. So this is not gonna play well for Republicans, but Americans who are traveling may finally be catching a break. Members of Congress are definitely not. TMZ, the you know gossip news site, is asking people to send pictures of Congress people who are on vacation during the shutdown, and it’s actually working. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, like, if TMZ can find a celebrity smoking a cigarette in a gas station in a town that you’ve never heard of, they will find South Carolina Republican Senator and Iran war enthusiast Lindsey Graham. And they will also find him enjoying himself at Disney World in Florida. He was reportedly dining at Chef Mickey’s for Sunday brunch, standing with a bubble wand and boarding Space Mountain. I hope he had fun. Here’s my favorite part, Matt. Graham told TMZ that he was meeting with Trump officials in Florida and met up with friends in Orlando afterwards. Now, I assume the friends were not Donald Duck, but who knows? Like, it’s Lindsey Graham, anything could happen. 

Matt Berg: It’s also kind of surprising that, you know, this is not just limited to only Republicans. At least one Democratic lawmaker was also caught up in this. Someone also spotted California Democratic representative Robert Garcia at a casino in Las Vegas after having lunch with his dad. Garcia responded via tweet, writing, quote, “Actually, I don’t mind what TMZ is doing here,” adding, quote, “Speaker Mike Johnson should have never sent us all home.” I guess when you can’t beat them, you should join them. I guess that’s Garcia’s take here. 

Jane Coaston: Now Representative Robert Garcia, you cannot blame your lunch trip to Vegas on Mike Johnson like it’s not like Mike Johnson didn’t take you to the airport. He did not buy your lunch. But Matt, this is a reminder that what happens in Vegas absolutely does not stay in Vegas. As always, it was nice talking to you. But if I were a member of Congress, I would not hang out with you in Vegas. 

Matt Berg: Well, I’d hang out with you anywhere, Jane, so thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: And that’s the news. [music break] 

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, wonder about Vice President JD Vance’s views on aliens, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how for reasons I do not understand, Vance decided to tell right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that he thinks aliens are demons, but then couldn’t back up his opinion at all. 

[clip of Vice President J.D. Vance] Well, look, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people, I think that the desire to describe everything celestial, everything as otherworldly, to describe it as aliens, I mean, every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has has understood that there are weird things out there. 

Jane Coaston: Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and come on JD, explain how aliens are demons. Get into the theology of alien demons. Get weird. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, and Ethan Obermann. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]