On February 22nd, President Donald Trump spoke to an exuberant crowd of MAGA supporters at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In this Q&A, Thomas Gift gives us his thoughts on the speech, as well as other headlines from the past week—including the tensions between Trump’s tech allies and his base, Elon Musk’s controversial government reforms, and the latest shake-up at the Pentagon. 

What were your thoughts on Donald Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday? 

This was another “Trump: Greatest Hits” speech—its chords sounded more like a campaign rally before the Iowa caucuses than a president who’d taken the oath of office just a month ago. Trump hit all the familiar notes: touting the pardons of January 6th rioters, denouncing “deep state” bureaucrats, attacking Joe Biden’s failures. No Democrat was spared, from Sen. Elizabeth Warren to MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow. Trump has a history at CPAC, of course. Last year he declared himself a “proud political dissident” coming back to save the Republican Party. A few years ago, his supporters rolled in a golden statue of Trump as a kind of idol for MAGA followers to worship. CPAC has become less a conservative conference, and more a Trump party. Some supporters even call the event TPAC, with a “T” for Trump.

What did you make of tech entrepreneurs who’ve stood behind Trump eliciting jeers from the CPAC crowd? 

Big Tech and Trump’s hardcore MAGA base have always had an uncomfortable alliance. On one side are the Silicon Valley leaders eager to donate money and stand behind Trump at his inauguration because they want more high-skilled immigration and exemptions from tariffs. On the other side are the populist nationalists like former Trump strategist Steve Bannon who despise the “globalists” and want to see the US wall itself off from the world economically and politically. At some point, Trump will have to choose between the two camps. Their agendas are, if not fundamentally incompatible, at least on a collision course. In a war of attrition, it’s hard not to think that hardcore MAGA will win out because that’s Trump’s base. They’re the ones who show up to rallies, flood events like CPAC, and never waver in their support.

Speaking of Big Tech, how is Elon’s Musk’s work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being judged so far? 

Most Americans don’t have any trouble believing that the US government can be wasteful and inefficient. But, in practice, many are skeptical of Musk taking a (literal) chainsaw to Washington bureaucracies. In a recent YouGov poll, just 42 percent of Americans view Musk favorably. The same percentage, 42, have a positive view of DOGE. Unsurprisingly, those figures sharply diverge along partisan lines. There are varied objections to Musk’s project. Some don’t like the breakneck speed at which he’s dismantling federal agencies. Some are concerned about the flippancy with which he talks about government workers. Still others think there’s not enough transparency. More and more, Musk is looking like a political liability for the White House. If that’s true, only time will tell how long the “bromance” between the Tesla CEO and Trump can last. 

Maybe the biggest story from last week was Trump firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What does that mean for the military? 

Trump has rhapsodized in the past about “my generals” and “my military.” He seemingly views the armed forces as an extension of him personally rather than the Constitution. That’s what’s so threatening to civil-military relations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a podcast before Trump’s election that he wanted the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs fired. It’s unclear whether CQ Brown Jr, who is Black, was fired for championing “DEI,” or because he wouldn’t embrace Hegseth’s “warrior ethos” that discounts the law of war. Either way, this isn’t about competence. It’s about Trump imposing ideological loyalty at the Pentagon. That starts with Hegseth at the top and filters down. The Defense Department, of course, isn’t an outlier in this regard. Trump is charting the same course at the Department of Justice, the FBI, and other federal agencies.

• Featured image: “CPAC stage” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Gage Skidmore
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• This interview is based on comments Thomas Gift made on CNN’s “Newsroom” on 23 February 2025. 
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• Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of USAPP – American Politics and Policy, nor the London School of Economics. 
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