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Trump to speak at CPAC after winning straw poll
CBSN
Fort Washington, Maryland — Former President Donald Trump will give the final major address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Saturday evening, after winning the event's traditional straw poll again.
Trump cleared the straw poll, which CPAC says 2,000 attendees completed, with 62% of the vote. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, thought of as Trump's most formidable rival in part due to his history of fundraising and rankings in early polls on the primary, was second with 20% of the vote.
The event, which usually attracts a number of presidential hopefuls beginning to launch their campaigns, featured only the other two candidates who have declared their candidacy, former Ambassador to the U.N. and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Among the major GOP figures mulling a bid, only former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the conference. Several of them skipped out on CPAC and instead appeared at a donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, hosted by the conservative group Club for Growth.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
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The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.