Politicians, media personalities and conservative activists gathered outside Washington on Friday for the second day of a conference featuring a range of political allies of President Donald Trump.
Speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) heralded the Trump administration’s first month in office, with dozens of executive orders that have proposed sweeping changes to a wide range of government policies and positions on international issues.
Mike Waltz, the president’s national security adviser, told the CPAC audience Friday that the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Ukraine war are certain to include U.S. investments in Ukraine’s mineral assets as part of a plan to recoup some funding for Ukraine’s defense.
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected a proposal that would grant American companies 50% ownership of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, but Waltz on Friday said the Ukrainian leader “is going to sign” a revised U.S. offer.
Waltz also said the Trump administration plans to “unleash holy hell” on drug cartels. On Wednesday, the State Department designated several Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups.
Journalist-turned-politician Kari Lake, whom Trump said in December he would like to see lead Voice of America, spoke about what she sees as the president’s wins in his first month in office, and her views on legacy media.
“Watching what President Trump has accomplished and done in one month is so incredible,” Lake said, referring to actions by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency and the State Department to search for corruption and curtail spending, including by ending foreign aid funding.
A former TV journalist in Arizona for nearly 30 years, Lake spoke of how she quit journalism because of what she felt was disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re still surrounded by too many fake journalists out there,” Lake said, adding that she believes the “purpose of the mainstream media is no longer to inform us, it’s to manipulate us.”
She criticized Associated Press reporting on government officials and independent bodies who validated the results of the 2020 election, saying, “They still pretend the 2020 election was the most secure election in all of history.”
Lake also said that she is honored that Trump named her to lead VOA, and said she will focus the news agency on producing “accurate and honest reporting.”
“VOA has been telling America’s story to the world for 83 years this Monday. Sometimes the coverage has been incredible and sometimes it’s been pitiful,” Lake said. “We are fighting an information war, and there’s no better weapon than the truth, and I believe VOA could be that weapon.”
Among those who have called for the network to be cut is Musk.
“We won’t become Trump TV,” she said, “but it sure as hell will not be ‘TDS TV.’ You can find all the Trump Derangement Syndrome that you want over on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, ’60 Minutes,’ The Washington Post and The New York Times.”
Trump is expected to address the CPAC gathering on Saturday.
