EXCLUSIVE – Vice President JD Vance is expected to spotlight President Donald Trump’s avalanche of activity since returning to the White House a month ago, as he kicks off the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known by its acronym CPAC.
Vance is no stranger to CPAC, but on Thursday morning at the opening session at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital, he’ll address the confab for the first time since his inauguration last month as Vice President of the United States.
“The Vice President is expected to emphasize the historic rate of achievement during President Trump’s first month in office,” a source familiar shared first with Fox News ahead of Vance’s CPAC appearance.
President Donald Trump (right) and Vice President J.D. Vance, at an Inauguration Day rally inside Capital One Arena, in Washington D.C. on January 20, 2025. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
According to the source, the vice president is expected to focus on the Trump/Vance administration’s efforts towards “securing the homeland and deporting violent illegal immigrants, unleashing American energy & fueling our economy, protecting American workers & promoting domestic manufacturing,” and “re-establishing American strength at home & abroad.”
The vice president will make his points as he takes part in a fireside chat with Mercedes Schlapp, the veteran Republican political and communications strategist who is a senior fellow at the American Conservative Union, the group that hosts CPAC.
Vance has been a regular at the conference in recent years, dating back to his successful 2022 campaign for the Senate in Ohio. And last October, as he crisscrossed the national campaign trail as Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, Vance also spoke at a CPAC-hosted townhall in battleground Arizona.
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JD Vance speaks on stage during the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Texas 2022 conference, on Aug. 18, 2022, in Dallas. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
CPAC, which dates back to 1974, is the nation’s oldest and largest annual gathering of conservative leaders and activists. In the years since Trump first won the White House in 2016, it has been dominated by legions of MAGA loyalists and America First disciples who hold immense sway over the GOP.
Vance, who served two years in the Senate before being elected vice president, has been considered a key player in helping the GOP-controlled chamber confirm Trump’s Cabinet nominees at a brisk pace.
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And Vance made major headlines earlier this month at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, when he used his first major speech as vice president to deliver a blistering address directed at Europe’s political class.
Vice President JD Vance gives a speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany on February 14, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis (REUTERS/Leah Millis)
Trump’s naming last summer of Vance – a former venture capitalist and the author of the bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” before running for elective office – as his running was seen as a sign that the now 40-year-old politician was the heir apparent to Trump and his movement.
Trump praised Vance in a recent interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” for “doing a fantastic job,”
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But asked by Baier if he viewed Vance as his successor and the Republican nominee in 2028, the term-limited Trump said, “No, but he’s very capable.”
“It’s too early. We’re just starting,” Trump added.
Questions about 2028 may be hanging over Vance at CPAC, which has long held a closely watched GOP presidential nomination straw poll.
Vance, in an interview earlier this month with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” was asked about the next White House race.
“We’ll see what happens come 2028, but the way I think about this is the best thing for my future is actually the best thing for the American people, which is that we do a really good job over the next three and a half years,” the vice president said.
Vance noted that “we’ll cross that political bridge when we come to it. I’m not thinking about running for president. I’m thinking about doing a good job for the American people and I think the best way to do that is to make sure that President Trump is a success.”
CPAC announced on Wednesday night what was widely expected, that Trump will close out the conference with a Saturday address, where he’ll likely take a victory lap for his convincing 2024 presidential election victory, which cemented his massive grip over the Republican Party.
Then-former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) (AP)
The president, long a major draw at CPAC, returns in triumph thanks to his recapturing of the White House, along with the GOP’s flipping the Senate majority from blue to red, and the party’s successful defense of their fragile control of the House.
Trump has been a regular at CPAC since 2011, since the then business mogul and reality TV star gave his first speech at the confab, in what would be an appetizer for his first White House campaign four years later.
Trump used his 2011 speech to tease a potential 2012 presidential run that never materialized, telling the crowd that if he did run, “our country will be great again.”
“CPAC is where he developed his antennae. He appeared for several years while he was the host of ‘The Apprentice,'” former longtime CPAC communications director Ian Walters noted. “He learned how to arouse the crowd, how to toss red meat.”
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And Trump, at an extreme political low point after leaving the White House in January 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of former President Biden’s 2020 election victory, gave his first post-presidency speech at CPAC.
Walters told Fox News that the address, where Trump teased a 2024 White House run, “provided him a reliable and predictable opportunity with an audience largely of his supporters.”