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Right-wingers and MAGA allies from across the globe gathered on Wednesday at the Gaylord National Resort, situated just outside Washington, DC, for a CPAC kickoff dinner hosted by Steve Bannon and presidential envoy Ric Grenell.
The dinner’s VIP guest list appeared as a populist reunion of global dignitaries, MAGA allies, and America First royalty.
It included Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK; Patryk Jaki, chairman of the European Conservatives in the European Parliament; Sorin Muncaciu, member of the Assembly of Deputies (Romania); George Simon, president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians; and Eduardo Verastegui, film producer.
2.19.25 Dinner Attendee List by jmanship on Scribd
While the attendees waited with anticipation for their hosts to appear, the guests mingled in the hall while enjoying an open bar. MAGA red speckled the room, a color frequently spotted in Washington after President Donald Trump’s landslide victory in November.
Bannon appeared just after 7:30 p.m. in his typical dark colored button-down shirt with a field jacket. He walked over to reporters with Grenell, who wore a gray suit and graciously answered questions from the establishment media.
Reporters tossed Grenell questions about his latest successes as Trump’s envoy for special missions. Grenell touted how Trump’s personality and power of negotiation unlock success in dealing with foreign leaders.
When asked about what foreign leaders could learn from Trump, Grenell pointed to the president’s “straight talk” and “authenticity.”
WATCH — LIVE: Day One of CPAC Continues…
“They’re tired of politicians that kind of say politician words, and they want straight talk,” Grenell replied to NBC News’s Katherine Doyle. “They want people who are transparent … People can sniff out authenticity, and I think they respond to authenticity.”
Bannon, giving remarks during dinner, launched his speech with “muzzle velocity.”
He challenged the attendees to take action against the global elites and administrative state that tried to destroy Trump, MAGA, and the republic. “What are you going to do? What are you prepared to do?” he asked. “You gotta search in your heart – this crowd right here, you on an international basis, but particularly Americans.”
“We’re not going to have Trump forever,” Bannon warned. “We have to take down the administrative state. We have to take down the deep state.”
“Trump was [politically] dead and he resurrected himself,” he said. “They [MAGA’s political foes] never thought that you in this room would ever be back in power … They thought not just we were losers, but we were dead, politically, culturally, as a civilization … That’s the war we fight.”
“The enemy is what I call the party of Davos,” Bannon explained. “It’s a combination of international organizations, the money centers of the City of London, of Frankfurt, of New York City, and easy money overlords in the tech worlds.”
“This is war,” he declared. “They’re out to destroy us and destroy this republic. And if you don’t understand that, you don’t understand the fight ran, and this is why Trump is so unique.”
“Divine providence works through him,” Bannon said of Trump. “He’s an imperfect instrument, and being that imperfect instrument makes him only more powerful.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
