Emma Ruby
Audio By Carbonatix
A long line of flags line the drive up to the Gaylord resort in Grapevine, and they flap with such vigor that their colors begin to blur. The Stars and Stripes, of course, stand at attention at every other interval, but erected between them is the red, white, and green of Iran’s lion and sun flag, which flew over the country before the 1979 revolution.
The display sets the scene for what is inside the convention hall, where the Conservative Political Action Conference is underway through this weekend. Traditionally hosted in D.C., the Dallas suburbs have become a home away from home for the annual gathering of MAGA’s most faithful, and the conservative nexus point has historically offered indicators of what’s to come for the movement.
Last year, for instance, Elon Musk triumphantly wielded a chainsaw across the CPAC stage while announcing the upcoming DOGE endeavor that would slash government workers and shutter longstanding agencies. This year, Iran is at the forefront, although the convention offers glimpses of the cracks that have emerged in the conservative front since the war began.
“I think a lot of Iranians are here as a thank you,” said Farrah Zavala, an Iranian-American woman from Houston who bought her ticket to CPAC after the United States launched its offensive against the Iranian regime.
Zavala is one of dozens of CPAC attendees marching through the halls with that lion and sun flag tied around her shoulders. Dozens more wear shirts depicting the flag, which has come to represent support for Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah of Iran, who a movement of Iranians recognizes as the rightful crown prince, or heir, to their homeland.
Tiny pins of the flag decorate jacket lapels; one woman carts around a wagon full of buttons that read “ask me about Iran.” Impromptu chants of “Thank you, Trump,” and “King Reza Pahlavi,” have broken out in the convention center’s halls and take minutes to die down. One particularly impassioned CPAC attendee, who spends most of Thursday standing at the front of the main stage with his arms raised like a bona fide hype man, wears a “Persians for Trump” T-Shirt.
Meeting with so many like-minded Iranians has been “amazing,” Zavala said. She added that, “with everything going on,” she isn’t surprised that Trump isn’t expected to attend the gathering.
For this delegation, he wouldn’t be the main act, anyway. Earlier this month, CPAC announced that Pahlavi would speak at the conference. He is expected to take the stage on Friday.
“We’re not just here to see the crown prince, we’re here to spread the story of Iran,” Zavala said.
A Growing Rift
The passion displayed by the conservative Iranian contingent hasn’t been met with full-throated support by the conservative base. In a hall full of booths selling Charlie Kirk “freedom” hoodies and Donald Trump rubber ducks, one booth props up a sign that reads “Do you support the war in Iran?” Beneath it, two jars labeled “yes” and “no” appear to contain an even number of votes.
As noted by the Associated Press, disapproval of the United States’ involvement in Iran is rooted largely in the base’s younger factions. One 25-year-old told the outlet that he saw the strikes on Iran as a “betrayal” of Trump’s “America First” campaign promises. A college sophomore said the possibility of boots on the ground warfare “keeps him up at night.”
Some of the conservative party’s largest detractors of the war are absent from this year’s CPAC gathering. It’s a big elephant in a big room because of how ubiquitous their presence has been at the convention in years past.
Emma Ruby
Candace Owens, the conservative conspiracy theorist who has delivered speeches at a handful of CPAC conventions over the last few years, has accused the nation of Israel of engineering the United States’ involvement in Iran and is not expected to be in attendance. Tucker Carlson, once the shining star of adversarial conservative sparring, has called the attack on Iran “absolutely disgusting and evil.” He, too, will not be in Grapevine this weekend.
Other absences, too, can’t be ignored. Not a single Trump has agreed to attend the convention. As the conservative party looks to who could wear the crown in 2028, CPAC may offer few answers. Neither J.D. Vance nor Marco Rubio — the apparent frontrunners — has signed on to speak at the event so far, and their absence has not inspired any dark-horse candidate to step forward.
Border Czar Tom Homan gave a talk on Thursday and is expected to be the senior-most cabinet member to grace the CPAC stage this weekend. Ahead of the Texas Republican Senate runoff election, attorney general and challenger Ken Paxton is giving an address at an exclusive $447 dinner, but incumbent John Cornyn has declined to attend.
Perhaps more than all of that combined, the absence of Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at a university event in Utah six months ago and was revered as a uniter in a movement that runs in a dozen directions at once, hangs over the event like a mist.
In any other year, the Iranian-Americans hoping for regime change may have been a subplot at CPAC; just another group of voices cheering for Trump. This year, all the other plots stayed home.
Minou Rigby moved to Dallas from Iran in 1978, one year before the shah was overthrown. Like Zavala, she’d never attended CPAC before now, but has been satisfied with the support her movement has received at the convention. Thursday morning, she attended a panel with two women who described being persecuted under the Islamic regime, and she found herself emotional and thankful.
“I’m just hoping to get Iran back to where we were,” she said, the flag hanging from her shoulders fluttering.
