CPAC Chair Schlapp: Trump Knows Speech Is 'Important Reset'

Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union, at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 (CPAC) hosted by the American Conservative Union on February 28, 2020 in National Harbor, MD. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

By Sandy Fitzgerald | Thursday, 25 February 2021 07:47 AM EST

Former President Donald Trump, who will mark his first public appearance with a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering on Sunday, knows his speech is a "very, very important reset," CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp said Thursday before the annual conference was to kick off in Orlando.

"He thinks about what he is going to say right until he starts saying it," Schlapp told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "I think he is talking to advisers, people he trusts, trying to ask where should I go with this speech? He knows it's a very, very important reset for him and for the country, and for half the country, and for so many people here in this ballroom."

Stephen Miller, Trump's adviser and one of his speechwriters, told Fox Business' Larry Kudlow in a preview of the speech Wednesday that Trump will likely speak about the economy, opening schools again, and will "obviously talk about the immigration issue, which the president believes, I agree, is political suicide for the Democrat Party."

Miller also said that the president will talk about standing up to China, bringing back our manufacturing jobs and that blue-collar working-class agenda.

Schlapp commented Thursday that Trump will most likely speak for well over an hour, as he has never spoken for any time shorter than that at CPAC.

But, Schlapp said that even with Miller's preview, Trump's speech can change up until when he starts talking Sunday.

Schlapp also addressed the Republicans' divisions, after some party members have broken with the former president following the riot at the Capitol, saying that CPAC has played a role with Trump that he would not have predicted back when the former president first announced his candidacy.

"One of the reasons he was a great conservative president is because people just didn't immediately go on the attack like so many establishment Republicans did," said Schlapp. "They never really liked Donald Trump. They liked his policies but then they thought they could shove him off the stage. My message to the establishment Republicans, you don't have to like Trump to love his policies. You should love the millions of people he brought to this coalition."

Also, said Schlapp, there are "MAGA supporters who might not have the same perfect philosophy other conservatives want them to have (but) they gravitated to (Trump) and love our movement. I want to grow this coalition. Anybody who wants to hurt this coalition, I think, is making a critical mistake."