President Donald Trump commands near-universal approval among the conservative grassroots, with 96 percent of more than 1,600 attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference saying they approve of the job he is doing, and overwhelming majorities backing his tariff agenda and military action against Iran's nuclear program.
The numbers, drawn from a survey conducted at CPAC's March 25, 28 gathering, leave little room for the recurring media narrative that the Republican base is fracturing. Ninety-four percent of respondents agreed Trump has been "the best president in my lifetime." Ninety-one percent backed tariffs aimed at reducing the trade deficit and boosting American workers and businesses. And 89 percent supported Trump's military action in Iran to remove Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and halt the country's nuclear program, Fox News Digital reported.
For anyone watching cable news panels speculate about a conservative crackup, the CPAC straw poll offers a blunt corrective. The movement that launched in 1964 is not splintering. It is consolidating, around a president, a policy agenda, and a clear sense of who comes next.
Vice President JD Vance earned a 92 percent approval rating from CPAC respondents and dominated a hypothetical 2028 Republican primary ballot with 53 percent support. Secretary of State Marco Rubio trailed at 35 percent. Every other potential contender landed in single digits.
That 18-point gap between Vance and Rubio signals something more than personal popularity. It suggests the conservative base has already identified the person it trusts to carry the Trump agenda forward, and it is the man Trump chose as his running mate.
Rubio, for his part, earned the title of most popular Cabinet member, with 42 percent of respondents naming him their favorite. Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, followed alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The specific percentages for those four were not disclosed in the poll results.
One of the more telling findings is the 89 percent support for military action against Iran. Critics have spent months warning that Trump's Iran posture would divide his coalition, pitting populist non-interventionists against traditional hawks. The CPAC data says otherwise.
Support for the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro ran even higher at 92 percent. Taken together, the foreign policy numbers show a base that backs decisive action abroad when it serves clear American security interests, and that has little patience for the hand-wringing that dominates Washington's foreign policy establishment.
Trump has repeatedly defied Republican critics who insisted his foreign policy approach would cost him support. The CPAC numbers suggest the opposite: the base rewards strength and punishes hesitation.
The 91 percent backing for tariffs is another number that should give pause to the free-trade wing of the Republican Party. For years, a certain strain of conservative punditry insisted that tariffs were a populist sugar high that would alienate the GOP's educated suburban voters and business-class donors.
At CPAC, the argument is settled. The conservative base wants trade policy that protects American workers and reduces the deficit. Period.
That consensus did not emerge overnight. Trump has promised consequences for Republicans who refused to back his tariff plan, and the CPAC numbers suggest those warnings carry weight with the voters who decide Republican primaries.
Pollster Jim McLaughlin, presenting the straw poll results, pointed directly at the gap between media coverage and grassroots reality. As the Washington Times reported, McLaughlin referenced headlines claiming Republicans were turning on Trump and called them out plainly:
"The fake news, what they've been telling us about us."
The Washington Times also noted that 85 percent of CPAC respondents agreed that "some supposed conservative leaders and influencers are creating unnecessary controversy and division in the MAGA movement for attention and money." That finding cuts at a specific class of commentators and politicians who position themselves as Trump allies in public while quietly undermining his agenda behind closed doors.
The pattern is familiar. A handful of Republican officeholders or media figures break with Trump on a high-profile vote or policy. Cable news treats it as a five-alarm fire. And then the actual base, the people who knock on doors, write checks, and show up at primaries, makes clear they are not interested in the rebellion.
We have seen this play out repeatedly, from impeachment talk involving Republicans siding against Trump to individual lawmakers attempting to block executive orders. Each time, the predicted fracture fails to materialize.
House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled an 84 percent approval rating from CPAC attendees, a strong showing that reflects his alignment with the Trump agenda in the lower chamber. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, by contrast, managed only 57 percent.
That 27-point gap between the two congressional leaders tells a story. Johnson has positioned himself as a reliable partner for the White House. Thune has faced recurring skepticism from the base over whether he will hold the line on spending, immigration, and judicial confirmations. Fifty-seven percent approval at a gathering of committed conservatives is not a vote of confidence. It is a warning.
The base remembers who fights and who hedges. Thune would do well to take note before the next high-stakes Senate vote.
CPAC respondents also weighed in on the opposition. When asked to identify the most articulate figures on the political left, attendees named California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The inclusion of Mamdani, a relatively new figure on the national stage, suggests conservatives are paying attention to the next generation of progressive leaders, not just the familiar names. Newsom, meanwhile, remains the Democrat that Republican voters most expect to face in a future national contest, even as his record in California continues to provide a ready-made contrast with conservative governance.
That contrast has only sharpened as Trump has notched recent wins against opponents who initially resisted his agenda but eventually backed down.
The demographic snapshot of the CPAC survey adds useful context. The average age of participants was approximately 49, and 86 percent came from the South. That skew means the poll captures a specific, and politically powerful, slice of the conservative coalition: middle-aged, Southern, activist-class Republicans.
These are the voters who dominate Republican primaries in the states that matter most. They are not swing voters. They are not persuadable moderates. They are the people who set the floor for any Republican candidate's viability, and right now, their message is unambiguous.
Trump's dominance at CPAC is not new. National Review reported that at the August 2022 CPAC conference in Dallas, Trump won 69 percent in the straw poll for the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, up from 59 percent at a February event in Orlando that same year. Ron DeSantis finished second at 24 percent, with Ted Cruz a distant third at just 2 percent. Trump also secured a 99 percent approval rating at that Dallas gathering.
By 2023, the margin had only grown. Breitbart reported that Trump won the 2023 CPAC straw poll with 62 percent among more than 2,000 attendees, holding a 40-point lead over DeSantis at 20 percent. As one attendee, Joseph Belnome, told the New York Post at the time: "Trump knows what he's doing and when he gets in there he doesn't have to have on-the-job training."
The trajectory is consistent. From 59 percent to 69 percent to 62 percent to 96 percent approval as a sitting president, Trump's hold on the conservative movement has only tightened over four years. The New York Post confirmed the same core findings: 96 percent approval, 94 percent calling him the best president of their lifetime, and Vance as the clear 2028 frontrunner.
Some questions remain unanswered. The pollster or organization that conducted the survey was not identified in the reporting. No margin of error or detailed methodology was disclosed. And the specific city where CPAC was held this year was not stated in the poll coverage, though the conference's long history of serving as a barometer for Republican grassroots sentiment gives the results weight regardless of venue.
None of that changes the headline number. Ninety-six percent is not a poll result. It is a mandate.
Washington's chattering class can keep writing obituaries for the Trump movement. The movement itself is not reading them.
