President Donald Trump commands near-universal approval among the conservative grassroots, with 96% of attendees at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference saying they approve of his job performance, Fox News Digital reported. The survey of more than 1,600 CPAC attendees also found overwhelming support for tariffs, military action against Iran's nuclear program, and the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The numbers paint a picture of a conservative movement that has not merely unified behind Trump but has absorbed his agenda into its operating assumptions. Ninety-four percent of respondents agreed he has been "the best president in my lifetime." That is not a soft endorsement. It is a verdict.
CPAC, founded in 1964, bills itself as the nation's oldest conservative grassroots gathering. The conference ran from March 25 through March 28. Respondents skewed Southern, 86% hailed from the South, and the average age was roughly 49. Those demographics matter: this is the Republican base in its most engaged, activist form, not a random sample of the electorate. But CPAC straw polls have long served as a barometer of where the party's energy sits, and right now, that energy sits squarely with the president and the people he has put in power.
Beyond personal approval, CPAC attendees endorsed the substance of Trump's second term with striking consistency. Ninety-one percent backed tariffs aimed at shrinking the trade deficit and boosting American workers and businesses. Eighty-nine percent supported military action in Iran to remove Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and halt the country's nuclear program. And 92% approved of the arrest of Maduro.
Those are not timid numbers on any of those fronts. Tariffs remain a point of tension in parts of the business wing, and military action against a nuclear-threshold state is never a casual proposition. Yet the base appears to have reached a settled consensus: strength abroad and economic nationalism at home are not just acceptable, they are expected.
Marc Thiessen, in commentary cited by Fox News Digital, argued that Trump is the first U.S. president to act on threats from the Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions, stressing the importance of taking enemies' words seriously in foreign policy. That framing resonates with a base tired of decades of diplomatic hand-wringing while Tehran enriched uranium and funded terror proxies.
The most telling section of the survey may be the hypothetical 2028 Republican primary. Vice President JD Vance leads with 53% support. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sits at 35%. Every other potential contender lands in single digits.
That two-man race is itself a statement. There is no anti-Trump lane. There is no Nikki Haley revival. There is no libertarian insurgency. The question is not whether the next Republican nominee will carry Trump's banner, it is which of his lieutenants will carry it most effectively.
The Washington Examiner noted that unlike last year's CPAC, where Vance stood alone as the obvious heir apparent, this year's results show two credible successors. Byron York wrote: "The notable aspect of what happened is that last year, there was only one heir apparent for President Donald Trump among the attendees. This year, there are two." RealClearPolitics averages of 2028 GOP primary polling since January reinforce the picture, with Vance first at 45.0%, Donald Trump Jr. second at 16.3%, and Rubio third at 12.3%.
Rubio's standing is worth watching. As Secretary of State, he ranked as the most popular Cabinet member in the CPAC survey, with 42% naming him their favorite. Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard followed in the rankings, though the survey did not provide individual percentages for those figures.
That kind of grassroots warmth toward a Cabinet secretary is unusual. It suggests Rubio has built a profile inside the movement that extends well beyond Foggy Bottom, a reality that Trump-backed candidates dominating recent primaries only reinforces. The conservative base rewards loyalty to the president and results. Rubio has delivered both.
The approval ratings for Republican congressional leadership tell their own story. Vance earned 92% approval as vice president. House Speaker Mike Johnson drew 84%. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune trailed at 57%.
A 35-point gap between the vice president and the Senate majority leader is not a rounding error. Thune has long been viewed with skepticism by the activist right, and his tepid number suggests that skepticism has not faded. The base wants fighters, not managers. Johnson, who has positioned himself closer to Trump on spending battles and the legislative agenda, reaps the reward.
Thune's number also carries a warning. Senators who keep their distance from the president's priorities, or slow-walk them through procedural caution, risk finding themselves on the wrong side of a movement that has little patience for half-measures. The pattern is clear: allied senators are stepping aside to make room for Trump-backed successors, and the base is watching who stands with the president and who hedges.
CPAC attendees were also asked to identify the most articulate figures on the political left. They named California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. That choice is revealing: the conservative base is paying attention to who speaks for the other side, and it sees the Democratic future embodied in a slick California executive and a young New York progressive.
Neither name should comfort Democrats. Newsom presided over a state hemorrhaging residents and businesses. Mamdani represents a strain of urban progressivism that alienates middle America. If those are the opposition's best communicators, the right has reason for confidence heading into the midterms and beyond.
The 2026 results fit a pattern of Trump dominance at CPAC that stretches back years. In 2024, Just The News reported that Trump captured a record seventh CPAC straw poll win with 94% support, while Nikki Haley managed just 5%. That made Trump the all-time CPAC straw poll leader, ahead of Mitt Romney's four wins and the three apiece claimed by Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, and Rand Paul.
A year earlier, Breitbart reported Trump winning the 2024 GOP nominee straw poll with 62% among more than 2,000 attendees, with Ron DeSantis a distant second at 20%. One CPAC attendee, Joseph Belnome, told the New York Post he voted for Trump because Trump "knows what he's doing and when he gets in there he doesn't have to have on-the-job training."
That sentiment, competence through experience, loyalty rewarded, has only deepened. The anti-Trump wing of the party, such as it was, has been reduced to background noise. Even former critics have sought Trump's endorsement rather than risk running against his coalition.
The Daily Wire noted that during his 2023 CPAC keynote, Trump vowed to "deal with the RINOs" and declared the party would "never go back to the party of Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and Jeb Bush." Two years later, that promise looks less like rhetoric and more like a completed mission. The old guard is gone. The base has moved on.
Straw polls are not scientific surveys. They measure enthusiasm, not electability. The 86% Southern skew and the self-selecting nature of conference attendance mean these numbers should not be confused with general-election polling.
But dismissing them would be a mistake. CPAC attendees are the people who knock on doors, write checks, and show up to primaries. They are the muscle of the Republican Party. And they are telling anyone who will listen that the Trump agenda, tariffs, border enforcement, a strong hand abroad, and zero tolerance for institutional rot, is not negotiable.
The 2028 succession question is already live, and it will play out entirely within Trump's coalition. Vance and Rubio are jockeying for position, but neither is running against Trumpism. They are running to inherit it. That is a dynamic Trump himself has shaped by acting as kingmaker across the party, demanding discipline and rewarding loyalty.
Washington's permanent class spent years predicting Trump's hold on the right would fade. CPAC's numbers say the opposite. The grip is tighter than ever, and the movement is already building the bench to carry it forward.
