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The Biggest Conservative Conference of the Year Is Happening Now. From the Lineup, You Would Barely Know the U.S. Is at War.

13 0
27.03.2026

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Gas prices are spiraling, and it seems more American soldiers are redeployed to the Middle East almost every day. But at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual conservative confab held this year in suburban Dallas, the ongoing conflict with Iran seemed relatively remote. At the event, which has become a sectarian gathering for fervent Trumpists in recent years, there was little dissension over the president’s decision to mount an ongoing air campaign against the Iranian regime.

The conflict was not front and center at the conference, which featured panels with titles like “Cigars, Steaks, and Ivermectin: A MAHA Survival Guide” and “Get Schooled: Don’t Let Woke Marxists Raise Your Children.” But even where it did get mentioned onstage, the deck was stacked against a fulsome geopolitical debate.

Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the last shah of Iran and pretender to the throne, was a scheduled speaker, and the event was packed with Iranian monarchists. At times, the Lion and Sun flag—the national flag of Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution—seemed almost as common as the Stars and Stripes. Occasionally, outside the halls in the spaces where attendees milled about during more tedious panels, fans would lead cheers of “King Reza Pahlavi” and “Regime Change for Iran.”

Onstage, there was a panel with “victims of the ayatollah,” who shared stories about how they had been blinded by the regime. Mercedes Schlapp, whose husband, Matt, leads the group that puts on the conference,........

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