CPAC Hungary, hosted by Budapest’s Center for Fundamental Rights, will be taking place again in May, with Prime Minister Orbán set to deliver the keynote address.
Marking his trip, PM Orbán posted a photo of himself with Schlapp, stating: “Matt and I have been working on strengthening U.S.-Hungarian relations for years. With the victory of President Donald Trump, our work has finally come to fruition: the age of patriots is here.”
Schlapp, in turn, reposted Orbán’s message with a message of his own: “I told PM Viktor Orbán last year that we would do our job in America just as he has in Hungary.”
The prime minster’s political director, Balázs Orbán, also posted: “Always a pleasure to host our great friend Matt Schlapp in Budapest! Exciting times ahead— CPAC Hungary returns on May 29-30. Stay tuned!”
Sclapp had previously also been to Poland, where he met with another conservative ally, President Duda, as well as former Prime Minister Morawiecki.
Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC events, and husband to Mercedes Schlapp, who served as Trump’s White House Director of Strategic Communications during his first term, spoke to Origo while in Budapest.
Asked about the bond between CPAC and President Trump, Schlapp told the paper: “We stood by Donald Trump in 2016, and then throughout the four years of his first presidency. We stood by him after the events of Jan. 6, and we even invited him to explain his position on the events in front of an audience. They tried to subpoena him and imprison him, but we stood by him all the way. Because we saw that he was a leader of historic importance. We need his voice, his personality.”
Regarding CPAC Hungary taking place for the fourth time in May, Schlapp called CPAC “a serious influential force” that has “given faith and momentum to bring freedom-loving politicians to power” around the world.
“We reached a point where there was nothing but Orbán and Trump – and that was it,” he commented, adding that the arrival of leaders such as Giorgia Meloni and Javier Milei has given new impetus to the conservative camp.
“And the more places the patriots win, the more nervous the left will become!” Schlapp exclaimed.
The CPAC head credited Trump’s recent win to the minority vote, saying that “all minorities supported him.” He also said the Hispanic vote was due to their neighborhoods falling victim to crimes perpetrated by those entering illegally while they had gone through or are still going through the proper procedures. “Of course, they voted for change, that is, for Trump!,” he said.
Referencing Trump’s first actions to dismantle wokeism, including removing rainbow flags from embassy buildings and banning transgender people from the military, Schlapp said, “In America, everyone has the right to live their lives the way they want. This doesn’t mean that it’s morally okay, just that everyone has the right to do it.”
He went on to express dismay at transgender people being in the military, as “they need very serious surgeries and doses of medication.” This is not about “being mean” but rather raising serious issues about being unfit for military service.
“They can’t just be assigned to any service because they’re incapable of doing their job, like on the frontlines. If they miss their daily dose of medicine just once, they become weak and unfit for service. Why do such people sign up for military service?” Schlapp asked.
As to the “joke” of DEI, he stated clearly that Trump will be ending this policy. “For the past four years, it has been common knowledge in America that if you are a white, middle-class guy, you are not going to get into a top school or get a management job at a company,” he said.
Regarding Brussels’ threat to member states’ sovereignty, Schlapp noted that “as an American, I find it difficult to understand why many more European countries are not rebelling against Brussels. At the same time, I can see that we too have fallen into a coma while the globalists, the Marxists, have tried to take power over our heads.”
He went on to say that all countries are facing the same issues: open borders and illegal migration, gender reassignment surgeries for kids, and turning traditional values upside down. He also attacked those who say Israel has no right to exist.
Touching on race relations in the U.S., the CPAC chair said: “In America, liberals added to this by saying that everything, everything was about skin color. If someone was white, they had no right to speak out, but if they were an activist in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, they immediately got the new job, just because someone in your family was once a slave. And some parts of America are so caught up in this madness that once upon a time we had slavery, they think it’s a permanent mark. In other countries around the world, if they make a (political) mistake, they correct it and move on. Not in the USA; many there want whites and blacks to hate each other until the end of time.”
As a Kansas native, Origo made sure to ask Schlapp about the upcoming Super Bowl and who he’s rooting for to win.
“I hope it’s the Kansas City Chiefs! They’re the first and only team to make it to the Super Bowl three years in a row, they have a great coach and a great quarterback. The team has a lot of Trump supporters, and they wear red jerseys, which is the color of the Republican Party. Who else could I root for?” he told the paper.