As the Trump Administration sets out to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government and private sector, a number of major companies have joined in the effort. Some others, however, have decidedly not. While companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, and some Wall Street banks have reversed course on DEI-related policies and pledges—many of which were made in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020—others, like Pinterest, have expressed caution over how the Trump-led backlash against DEI could impact their business. Still, others see an abrupt shift away from DEI to be short-sighted. On Tuesday, Apple shareholders rejected a proposal to abolish its DEI initiatives, after the company’s board of directors made the case that ditching its DEI programs would “restrict Apple’s ability to manage its own ordinary business operations, people and teams, and business strategies.” And earlier Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi told the Financial Times, “We think that building an employment group that is diverse, that is global, that thinks about all aspects of the business, that’s positive—that’s just good business,” although the company is adjusting its DEI-based executive pay incentives. Apple Apple became the latest major company to reject a shareholder proposal asking the company to abolish its diversity and inclusion programs, policies, departments, and goals. The bid was drafted by conservative think-tank National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), which has submitted a number of DEI-related proposals to companies even before President Donald Trump’s second term began. The proposal argued that corporate DEI programs expose the company to potential litigation, citing a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that reversed affirmative action in college admissions. But investors at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting on Feb. 25 rejected the measure, with 97% of votes cast against it. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who met with Trump last week, said at the meeting that Apple has never had quotas or targets. However, he added that the company may have to make adjustments “as the legal landscape around these issues evolves,” according to Bloomberg News. Ben & Jerry’s Ben & Jerry’s has never shied away from social activism—with campaigns around marijuana legalization, racial justice, and LGBTQ+ pride. Unsurprisingly, when it comes to DEI, the ice cream company told CNBC that it has no plans to roll back or slash its efforts. “We believe that companies that timidly bow to the current political climate by attempting to turn back the clock will become increasingly uncompetitive in the marketplace and will ultimately be judged as having been on the wrong side of history,” the company said in a statement. Ben & Jerry’s recently accused its parent company Unilever of trying to mandate its silence on Trump. The company is suing Unilever for allegedly threatening to “dismantle” Ben & Jerry’s independent board and stifling its social activism. Costco Last month, the board of directors for Costco Wholesale unanimously opposed a proposal filed by NCPPR, which asked the wholesaler to report the risks of maintaining its DEI policies. “Our Board has considered this proposal and believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary,” Costco’s board wrote in its recommendation to shareholders, who would vote on the proposal. “Our efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion remind and reinforce with everyone at our Company the importance of creating opportunities for all. We believe that these efforts enhance our capacity to attract and retain employees who will help our business succeed.” The board added that its DEI policies are legally appropriate. Shareholders voted against the proposal at Costco’s annual shareholder meeting on Jan. 23, with 98% votes cast against it. Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines maintained its line on DEI efforts last month. “DEI is about talent, and that’s been our focus,” Delta chief external affairs officer Peter Carter reportedly said on an earnings call in January. “We are steadfast in our commitment because we think they are actually critical to our business.” Francesca’s Clothing retailer Francesca’s affirmed its commitment to DEI in a LinkedIn post earlier this month. “DEI is not an abbreviation—it’s a Human Strategy, and respect and inclusion are good for business,” the post said. “At Francesca’s, we’ve built a culture where employees feel free to be you in all senses,” CEO Andrew Clarke said in an accompanying video. He added that as an openly gay CEO, he has faced prejudice, discrimination, and “even lost a job” over his identity. DEI is “not just part of the strategy,” Clarke said in the video. “It’s the human strategy.” JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon reaffirmed the bank’s support of DEI in a Feb. 24 interview with CNBC. The bank—the largest in the U.S.—will continue its outreach to Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, veteran, and disabled communities, Dimon said. Dimon’s comments came after the bank’s latest annual filing earlier this month noted that it “has been and expects that it will continue to be criticized by activists, politicians and other members of the public concerning business practices or positions taken by JPMorgan Chase with respect to matters of public policy (such as diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives).” Lush Cosmetics company Lush wanted its message on DEI to be heard—and smelled—putting out three new bath bombs named Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Hilary Jones, global ethics director at Lush, told ADWEEK that the company is “not going to roll back on anything, and we wanted to make sure that we were visible in not rolling back.” The company, known for its colorful soaps with quirky names, has long been vocal about social issues: it launched a soap in the early 2000s called “Gay is Okay” and in 2014 supported its employees who staged a protest over police brutality at the Mall of America. After a complaint about the protest was posted on the company’s corporate page, Lush responded: “We are a campaigning company, and we support the right to free speech and peaceful protest. Standing in solidarity of fairness, justice and equality for all, regardless of gender, race, age, sexuality, and religio Microsoft Microsoft has not made any moves to repeal its DEI policies, according to Bloomberg Law. The company’s chief diversity officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre put forward the business case for supporting diversity and inclusion practices in a Dec. 20 LinkedIn post. “I’m thinking about the importance of continuing our diversity and inclusion work, expanding empathy, and anticipating the needs of all our stakeholders, both within Microsoft and beyond,” she wrote. “A workforce strengthened by many perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds is critical to our innovation.” Patagonia Patagonia told CNBC that it will not scale back its DEI policies. “We stand firm in support of our justice, equity and antiracism policies and practices,” the outdoor apparel company said in a statement. The company has been well known for its activism around climate issues. “We know that when we come together and push back, we can win,” Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert recently wrote in TIME, arguing against the Trump Administration leasing or selling 640 million acres of public lands. “As we have for decades before,” Gellert wrote, “Patagonia will mobilize our community and use our position as a business and supporter of grassroots conservation groups to protect public land and water regardless of who is in the White House.”

His selection is being celebrated by MAGA world, while it feels like the latest scare in Democrats’ nightmare. President Donald Trump announced Sunday night that Kash Patel had tapped Dan Bongino to be second-in-command at the FBI, after the Senate confirmed Patel as the bureau’s new director last week. A former police officer and Secret Service agent Bongino started his career as a cadet then officer with the New York City Police Department from 1995 to 1999, according to a previous campaign website. He joined the Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent, starting in the New York Field Office and assigned with investigating federal crimes such as “protective intelligence, computer crimes, bank fraud, credit card fraud and counterfeiting.” Bongino left the field office in 2002 to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Md. In 2006, Bongino joined the Presidential Protective Division, serving during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Bongino then transferred to the Baltimore Field Office in 2010, before leaving in May 2011 to run for office. He has published multiple books on his time with the agency, including Life Inside the Bubble: Why a Top-Ranked Secret Service Agent Walked Away from It All (2013) and The Fight: A Secret Service Agent’s Inside Account of Security Failings and the Political Machine (2016), drawing criticism for allegedly exaggerating his importance and proximity to power and “hijacking the Secret Service brand” to gain attention. Ran for Congress three times, unsuccessfully In 2012, Bongino ran for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, winning the Republican primary but ultimately losing by a landslide to Democratic incumbent Ben Cardin. He ran at the time on cutting taxes, growing jobs, and his “heartfelt desire to shake up an unquestionably broken political system and culture.” In 2014, Bongino ran against Democratic incumbent John Delaney to represent Maryland’s 6th congressional district in the U.S. House, but he narrowly lost. Bongino then moved to Florida in 2015 for a “non-emergency family situation,” raising speculation that he would run for Congress again, to represent the state’s 18th district. In 2016, he ran instead in the GOP primary for Florida’s 19th district, which was an open solid-red seat, but he finished third. Survived Hodgkin’s lymphoma In September 2020, Bongino announced a 7-cm. growth had been found in his neck. The next month, he said he had to undergo an operation to remove the growth, and he later disclosed post-operation that it “looks like lymphoma”—a type of blood cancer. On Oct. 16, Bongino said he’d been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, though he added that “there’s a treatment plan.” In an interview with Megyn Kelly in 2024, Bongino said he was “two years clean in remission.” ‘My entire life right now is about owning the libs’ Bongino began a new career in media after his unsuccessful run for Congress in 2015, starting a podcast in his basement called The Renegade Republican (since renamed The Dan Bongino Show). By 2016—with episodes such as “Debunking Liberal Spin About Democrats and Inner Cities,” “How The Media Fooled America,” “The Truth About Trade Wars” and “I’m Disgusted by Republicans for Hillary”—his audience was reaching millions. Bongino’s popularity and brash style earned him a contract in 2018 with NRATV, the National Rifle Association’s short-lived online video channel. “My entire life right now is about owning the libs,” Bongino famously said during a segment in October 2018. Over the years, Trump took notice of Bongino, frequently posting on social media about his comments. “Did you see what Bongino said?” Trump reportedly told a confidant after seeing Bongino as a contributor on Fox News in 2018, according to the Daily Beast. “He’s so right, he’s just so right about it all. You have to see it.” Bongino, like many new leaders across the Trump Administration including Patel, represents a radical departure from convention for his role. The FBI deputy director, which does not require Senate confirmation, is traditionally an active agent with significant operational expertise and experience—something Patel reportedly agreed to maintain before selecting Bongino. Bongino, a 50-year-old former Secret Service agent turned conservative-media commentator, is instead most well known for his outspoken support for Trump and his frequent spreading of misinformation, including about the FBI. In 2019, Bongino launched Bongino Report, an aggregator of right-wing media headlines intended as a pro-Trump alternative to Drudge Report. Bongino’s Facebook page grew to generate “more monthly engagement than the pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN combined,” according to a 2020 New York Times report. In 2021, Bongino was tapped by talk radio and podcast network Cumulus Media to take over the late Rush Limbaugh’s slot. That same year he also began hosting a Fox News weekend program, Unfiltered With Dan Bongino, as well as a five-part series on cancel culture called Canceled in the USA on Fox Nation. (Bongino left the Fox News network in April 2023, citing failed contract negotiations.) Bongino continues to host his podcast and radio show, though Trump said in his post announcing Bongino’s FBI appointment that it is “something he is willing and prepared to give up in order to serve.” A misinformation ‘superspreader’ Bongino has been criticized for promoting misinformation and conspiracy theories on a range of subjects. A critic of vaccine mandates and masking (which he called “useless”) during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bongino was permanently banned from YouTube in January 2022 for violating its policies against pandemic-related misinformation, and Google pulled its ad services from his website. His podcast also went on hiatus in October 2021 after he publicly threatened to leave Cumulus Media over its vaccine mandate, despite being vaccinated himself. The show went back on air less than two weeks later, however, without Cumulus changing its policy.

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Chris Christie’s flight from Detroit landed in Newark, N.J., on Thursday and was one of the unlucky arrivals without a dedicated gate assignment. Tired and cranky, the former New Jersey Governor lumbered onto a bus ferrying passengers back to the terminal, where the woman seated beside him started unpacking the unpredictable state of politics, particularly President Donald Trump’s chaotic first few weeks back in power. “She said, ‘You know, he's really shaking things up, and maybe some of that will turn out OK,’” Christie recalled two days later at the Principles First Summit, a confab of traditionalist Republicans trying to chart their way through the next four years of Trumpism. “At that moment, when I'm at the end of my travel day, my Sicilian instinct is to grab her by the shoulders and go, ‘Are you kidding me?’” But Christie, who ran against Trump for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, ran afoul of his mercurial nature, and subsequently found himself exiled, listened politely before offering a self-aware question to her: “What about everything you've seen about him for the last 10 years leads you to believe that it might turn out OK?” In Christie’s telling, the woman in question said it was important for anyone in the presidency to succeed. Christie, uncharacteristically, was prepared to let the chat end there, but not his parable for an audience of hard-core NeverTrumpers, disaffected Republicans, and more than a few self-identified Democrats looking for answers in this charged period. “There's going to come a moment where that woman, I believe in my heart, is going to say, ‘Yeah, no, this is not OK anymore,’” Christie said. “But we all get there at a different pace.” And then the former prosecutor summed up the ethos for that sold-out thinkfest held a few blocks from the White House back in Trump’s control. “To the extent that we try to force that pace because we can't stand it anymore, we run the risk of lengthening it, not shortening it,” he said. “And a lot of damage could be done.” Welcome to the latest iteration of the Conservative Resistance. They are angry, they are motivated, and they are altogether at a loss at what to do with those feelings. This year’s Principles First summit, it’s fifth, offered its usual blend of anti-Trump fervor and pragmatic posturing about how to reclaim a Republican Party and conservative movement with which they once comfortably identified. On the same day that Trump regaled the more boisterous crowd just across the river at CPAC with his tales of political retribution, several hundred activists and insiders gathered in downtown D.C. to make sense of their current impotence. In the room, much of the rhetoric came off as scorching and inspired, as if a solution to the ongoing dismantling of much of the federal government were just over the horizon. Beyond the basement ballroom, though, it sure seemed lukewarm. It was a wait-it-out strategy that, frankly, is not entirely dissimilar to the approach Democrats are taking on their side of the observation deck. The path forward in no way matched the appetite for immediate action. It felt, at times, like being promised a decadent five-course meal and realizing later you had been served a rice cake. Dark humor and worries about democracy’s nadir frequently intersected in the basement of the J.W. Marriott. When former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales mused that maybe “Congress will say enough is enough,” the ballroom giggled with skepticism. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson similarly drew laughs when he suggested Congress will assert its check over the presidency: “I’m optimistic that they will at the right time. And it may be very, very soon.” Yet former Rep. Joe Walsh, a Tea Party founder from Illinois, said no one should count on the group he once counted himself a member to do their jobs: “Forget about Republicans in Congress. They’re done.” Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban was similarly dismissive of those who thought wailing about Trump tearing down democracy would get the public on their side. “How’d that work in the campaign?” he needled. The gathering seemed simultaneously poisoned by pessimism and laden with pleas to give Trump time to reveal himself as a true threat to All Things American. The job of harnessing that outrage, the argument went, will get easier once Trump inevitably hands his critics a full dossier of second-term over-reach. As one introducer ticked through Trump’s foreign policy changes so far, he seemed out of breath by the end of the partial list. “That was in one month,” he said. “There are 47 months left.” But talk of waiting things out was constantly in tension with what many saw as an urgent moment in history that demanded action. “This is the collapse of an American ideal, American ideology, the American view of the world,” said Tom Nichols, a retired academic who now writes for The Atlantic. To his right on stage, one of the most recognized democracy advocates, chess grandmaster and Russian dissident Garry Kasparov, offered a polite correction. “We are not watching the collapse of the American ideal. We are watching the betrayal of the American ideal,” Kasparov said. “We are living in the middle of the coup.” As the day’s sessions neared its end, Sarah Longwell, a political strategist and publisher of The Bulwark, deadpanned, “This has been a long day and is terrifying,” before calling the President “a fabulist, a liar, and a bad person.” No one really objected to the verdict, but it was not apparent what to do with it. (Before the Summit closed out on Sunday, organizers announced they had received “a credible bomb threat” from someone claiming to be Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, forcing a temporary evacuation. Tarrio reportedly denied any involvement.) While adopting a resigned wait-it-out slouch, a running thread at the summit came down to a simple but actionable question: At what point has the United States entered into a constitutional crisis? Trump has been musing that he was not subject to court rulings, might serve a third Gonzales, who served as President George W. Bush’s top lawyer and ran his Justice Department, but endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris last year, said he is waiting to see if Trump ignores an inevitable setback from the courts. “Until that happens, we don’t have a constitutional crisis,” Gonzales said. Added Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney: “We’re not there yet.” And Christie, another former U.S. attorney, said he, too, is concerned about the looming crisis, but warned that the language is being too casually bandied about. “I think we use this ‘constitutional crisis’ thing much too liberally,” Christie said. “What we're doing is cheating, because when we really do have the constitutional crisis, half the country is going to go…” He then uttered a verbal shrug that could possibly be transcribed as “meh.” In the room, folks nodded along with a dour expectation that they too were going to be using that rhetoric at some point. It may just be as premature as it is inevitable. Patience is far from sexy, but it may be the best strategy to allow for Trump to trip over traps of his own making. Yet those most committed to restoring traditional conservative footing in the GOP are anxious to do more than stand by at this specific moment. “The resistance will rise,” said Bill Kristol, a self-described hawk who served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle. “But will it rise quickly enough?” In the crowd, there were visible shaking of heads.

Elon Musk caused alarm among federal employees and drew ire over an email sent on Saturday requesting that employees summarize their work for the week, and warning on social media that a failure to do so would be taken as a resignation. The email—which boasted the subject line “What did you do last week?”—was sent from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to workers in various government departments, including the FBI, the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Veterans Affairs Department, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to the New York Times. “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished this week and cc your manager,” the email read, telling employees to respond by midnight on Monday. In a post shared on his social media platform X, Musk, the head of the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said: “Consistent with President Donald Trump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” However, there was no mention of resignation in the email sent to employees. TIME has reached out to the White House for comment and clarification. “It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire,” Kelley said. He went on to add that the AFGE would “challenge any unlawful terminations” of federal employees. Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents employees from 37 different departments and offices, said in a statement that the email “should be called out as completely un-American,” according to CNN. “NTEU’s members are professional civil servants and will not back down to these blatant attempts to attack a vital resource for the American public,” she said. Republicans have shown varying levels of support and criticism over Musk’s directive. On Sunday’s episode of ABC’s This Week, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York was asked to share his reaction to the email and Musk’s comment that failing to respond would be tantamount to a resignation. Lawler said: “I don’t know how that’s necessarily feasible. Obviously, a lot of federal employees are under union contract.” He then went on to show his support for Musk’s efforts to downsize the government. “There’s no question, as the Department of Government Efficiency moves ahead, what they are seeking to do is ensure that every agency and department is effectively and efficiently doing their job,” Lawler told host Martha Raddatz. “The task at hand for Elon Musk and DOGE, at the direction of President Trump, is to find efficiencies and savings, and make sure that our federal workforce is doing their jobs." Also appearing on This Week, fellow Republican and the former Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, said that Musk’s survey is a “complete overstep.” “As with everybody’s employment, things vary from week to week,” Christie said. “From a management perspective, you can see what a clown car this is right now.” Meanwhile, during an appearance on CBS' Face the Nation, Utah Republican Senator John Curtis said: "If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people, real lives, mortgages. It's a false narrative to say we have to cut and we have to be cruel to do it." Appearing on the same show, Maryland Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen also shared his perspective. "There's no article in the Constitution that gives Elon Musk that authority," he said. "The actions he's taking are illegal, and we need to shut down this illegal operation." Musk appeared to address the mounting criticism early Sunday, via posts on X. He stated that the email responses should take “less than 5 mins” and that many “good responses” from employees have already been received. “These are the people who should be considered for promotion,” he said. The DOGE leader also called the highly-discussed email “a very basic pulse check.” He then proceeded to conduct a poll on his X account, in which he asked: "Should all federal employees be required to send a short email with some basic bullet points about what they accomplished last week?" The poll received over 1.2 millions responses, with 70.6% voting yes. Musk's actions came soon after President Trump posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, on Saturday that Musk should be “more aggressive” in his efforts to downsize the federal government—a goal that has already led to mass layoffs and the ceasing of many government contracts. According to an NBC report, Trump’s newly-confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel told FBI employees in an email to “pause any responses” to Musk’s directive, expressing that they will go through their own performance review process. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” the message from Patel reportedly read. And Patel is seemingly not alone. Per the New York Times, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the Office Of National Intelligence, instructed officers in the department not to respond to Musk’s email. Elsewhere, an email said to be from the State Department leadership to its employees had a similar message: that leadership would respond to the OPM email on behalf of the department, and they would evaluate their own employees. Department heads from the Pentagon, the IRS, FEMA, and NOAA, are also reportedly seeking guidance before they instruct their employees to respond, according to emails obtained by ABC News.

Vice President J.D. Vance arrived at the Dachau concentration camp under low, gray clouds. He climbed out of his armored Suburban SUV and approached the stucco and cement gatehouse, gravel crunching underfoot. Waiting for Vance beneath a low arch, in front of a gate that had the words arbeit macht frei set into its ironwork, was Abba Naor, a survivor of the camp. Over the course of the next 80 minutes, Vance, 40, toured the site with Naor, 97, at his side. In the first room of the memorial’s main exhibition building, a large map displayed the network of Nazi concentration camps that existed at the height of World War II. Gesturing to the map, Naor showed Vance his hometown of Kaunas, Lithuania, and described the route by which he arrived at Dachau in 1944, via the Stutthof concentration camp. On the way, he was separated from his mother and younger brother, who were sent to Auschwitz. “The moment I saw my mother and brother heading toward the train, I realized that was it,” Naor told Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial. “I could say ‘goodbye’ forever.” At Auschwitz, and at other death camps like Sobibor, Treblinka, and Belzec, 6 million Jews—2 of every 3 in Europe—were killed. In the next room, where arriving prisoners were processed, Naor showed Vance the identity card he had been given when he came to Dachau. Naor was dispatched to perform slave labor in the network of Dachau’s 140 subcamps. Dachau wasn’t created to exterminate Jews: the Nazis opened it in 1933, soon after Hitler took power, and among the first held there were Communists, Social Democrats, and other political opponents. Of the more than 200,000 people who passed through Dachau, more than 40,000 died. “The subcamps, this was our problem,” Naor tells TIME the day after his visit with Vance. “The people couldn’t stay long alive.” But Naor did, surviving a death march until he was finally liberated by American troops after his captors fled. “This is something you never forget,” Naor says. “I told [Vance] it was Japanese Americans who liberated us. He was happy to hear this.” Vance emerged from the camp’s museum with his wife Usha and made his way toward a memorial. A wreath of ever-green branches, accented with white roses, lay propped nearby, with a red, white, and blue ribbon reading "We remember" on one end and "United States of America" on the other. Vance and his wife picked up the wreath and placed it in front of the memorial. Vance prayed briefly and crossed himself. He adjusted the end of the wreath reading we remember so that it was visible. Then he walked to a large wall nearby, which bore the words "Never Again" in several languages. Vance thanked Naor for sharing his story. “I really am really moved by this site,” Vance said to the assembled media and officials of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. “While it is, of course, a place of unspeakable atrocity and terror and evil, it’s very important that it’s here, and it’s very important that those of us who are lucky enough to be alive can walk around, can know what happened here, and commit ourselves to prevent it from happening again.” Vance’s visit to Dachau on Feb. 13 came at a fraught moment for the U.S., for Europe, and for the effort to sustain awareness of the Nazi genocide. As the last survivors die and power passes to leaders who were born decades after the German attempt to annihilate the Jews of Europe, the way we talk about the Holocaust is changing. Until recently, there was near consensus that the systematic extermination of 6 million lives was above politics. Now, leaders on the right argue that nationalist parties with neo-Nazi ties are being unfairly excluded from the democratic process. Pro-Palestinian activists have adopted “Never Again” as part of their campaign to hold Israel responsible for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Left and right accuse one another of fueling a rise in antisemitism, incidents of which have doubled in the past year, according to recent studies. Vance’s visit to Germany on the eve of that country’s Feb. 23 elections spotlighted the politicization. The day after he met Abba Naor at Dachau, the Vice President spoke at the Munich Security Conference, delivering an attack on Europe’s postwar approach to fighting a return of Nazism, including limits on free speech and the exclusion of far-right parties from power in a tacit agreement between mainstream parties called the “firewall.” “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters,” Vance told the heads of state, foreign ministers, and intelligence chiefs packed into an ornate hall at the Bayerische Hof hotel. “There is no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don’t.” Later, the Vice President met with Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany’s nationalist AfD party, some of whose officials have downplayed the Holocaust and embraced Nazi rhetoric, and which has run second in pre-election polling. The U.S. has refrained from attacking the German approach, and the speech shocked European leaders. The next day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz began his speech to the conference with a retort to Vance. “A mere 20 km separates this conference venue from the National Socialist concentration camp in Dachau,” Scholz said, “where the most unimaginable crimes against humanity were perpetrated by Germans and in Germany’s name.” Preventing it from happening again, as Vance pledged to do at Dachau, Scholz said, cannot be reconciled with support for the AfD. More is at stake than German politics. For 80 years, the democracies that lived through the war shared a commitment to ostracizing extremists. That consensus has been beneficial on both sides of the Atlantic. Economic and political interests are fickle, but shared values like democracy and humanism endure, and they have provided decades of prosperity and peace. “Like the fish swimming in the water, we may no longer be really aware of how important that environment is for us,” says Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who co-led with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham a delegation of American lawmakers to the conference. “But any efforts by the U.S. to degrade that comes with real national-security peril.” While some European diplomats in Munich feared a rising international alliance of far-right parties led by Trump, others say that behind the scenes they received reassurances of continuing American commitment to shared values from Vance. “Every Administration brings new things to the table,” says Kaja Kallas, the E.U.’s top diplomat. “You’re not seeing a fundamental shift in the way America sees its vision for Europe or its relationship with Europe.” Yet Vance is at the vanguard of a movement that views itself as turning the page on the establishment consensus on everything from the U.S. Constitution to international trade to foreign policy. That includes the postwar alliance forged in the fight against Nazism. “The foreign policy establishment is obsessed with World War II historical analogies,” Vance told TIME last spring. “Everything is some fairy tale they tell themselves from the 1930s and 1940s.” The diplomats left Munich. Vance flew back to Washington, where his political ally Elon Musk, an AfD supporter who recently made a gesture during a speech that looked a lot like a Nazi salute, was at work dismantling U.S. aid programs around the world. Naor returned to Dachau. In a room just off the main exhibition space where he and Vance had been four days earlier, he spoke to some 80 students, a laptop open in front of him on a desk. The camp receives around 40 groups a day, and close to 1 million visitors a year. Naor wants to ensure they learn the truth about the Holocaust. “I come almost every day, meet children, and they listen to my story,” he says. Naor is not particularly emotional about the inevitable passing of the generation of survivors. The Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site itself will endure, he says: “They will have a place in Dachau where everyone will be able to find my story.” As for the meaning of that story for a new generation of leaders, he says, the Holocaust transcends politics. Says Naor: “Dachau is the truth.” —With reporting by Melissa August/Washington

This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. Mark Cuban is no fan of Donald Trump. The business moguls have a long, complicated relationship that colored plenty of the 2024 presidential campaign as the reality stars sparred from afar. The frenemy-ship was one of the best subplots of last year’s hard-fought campaign, and one that is showing no sign of abating. Speaking Saturday to a conference of traditionalist Republicans, the Dallas Mavericks owner and serial entrepreneur suggested Trump merits slim admiration as he continues to hock anything that will slap his name on it, from cryptocurrency to clothing to the U.S. government itself. “The only reason someone sells all that shit is because they have to,” Cuban trolled. Cuban by contrast said he doesn’t need to slum it with such petty endeavors. “I don’t need to sell gold tennis shoes that may not ship,” he said, noting Trump’s effort in footwear that warned might never materialize. “He doesn’t want to govern. He wants to sell.” Bravado of that order is easy when you’re a billionaire. It’s just not clear that it translates to a viable governance strategy, especially with a rival billionaire holding the most consequential job on the planet. Cuban, a swaggering independent, was regrouping in Washington with anti-Trump Republicans at the Principles First summit, as the Trumpist wing of the party huddled across the river at this year’s CPAC, where Trump was set to speak this afternoon, and Elon Musk brandishing a chainsaw stole the show earlier this week. The striking split-screen Saturday hinted at the deeply unsettled moment in politics, as our most famous billionaires offer competing views of how to fix Washington. And for Cuban, that prescription was wrapped up in his withering assessment of the Democratic Party, and Vice President Kamala Harris, who he believes failed to reach voters last year. “If you gave the Democrats a dollar bill and said, ‘You can sell these for 50 cents,’ they would hire 50 people … and then would not know how to sell the dollar bill for 50 cents,” said Cuban, who hit the trail last year for Harris. “If you gave it to Donald Trump and said, ‘Sell this dollar bill for $2,’ he’d figure out a way, right? He’d tell you that $2 bill is, you know, huge.” All of which leads Cuban to having little optimism that Democrats can steer the country away from the Trumpian skid the nation finds itself enduring. “I learned the Democrats can’t sell worth shit,” Cuban said. In Cuban’s estimation, Democratic candidates did not demonstrate having any understanding of small businesses, the impact of inflation, the anxiety about immigration, or even the basics of the tax code. All of that conspired, thanks to bloated consultants looking over their shoulders, to their losses when a win was achievable. It’s also why, after his first event for Harris, he banned her consultants from chirping in his ear, he said, and why he’s watching with frustration and shock that they haven’t learned any lessons from last year’s loss. Cuban heaped scorn on those Democrats who keep repeating the arguments from the unsuccessful 2024 bid about Trump being a threat to democracy and a challenge to everything that Americans hold dear. “How’d that work in the campaign?” Cuban said. As Trump and Musk set about to scrap whole pillars of the federal bureaucracy, Cuban argued that the fascination on the wrecking ball is not a winning tactic because neither he nor Musk need to get it all right to change government in ways that will be difficult to unwind. “Elon doesn’t give a shit,” Cuban said. “He’s, like, ‘F— it, I’ll be rich no matter what.’” That said, Cuban was clear he has zero interest in being an elected player in a system he carries avowed contempt toward. “I don’t want to be President,” he said. “I’d rather f— up health care.” As both parties fret over the outsized influence of the super-rich, it is telling how much the prescriptions of celebrities with deep pockets continue to draw so much interest. Cuban’s needling of Democrats was rooted in how much he blames them for everything unfolding now. “Chaos is not good for this country,” Cuban warned. “There's no amount of money that overcomes that.”

Connor McDavid broke America’s heart. The Canadian hockey superstar, a three-time NHL MVP who also won the NHL playoff MVP last season even though he played for the losing Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals, took a centering pass and beat American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with a laser shot to give Canada a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the U.S. in the final of the inaugural—and highly successful—4 Nations Face-Off. The tournament—which pitted teams from the U.S., Canada, Finland, and Sweden against each other as a replacement for the NHL’s usually low-wattage All-Star festivities—drew record viewership, in large part due to a burgeoning U.S.-Canada geopolitical rivalry that spilled out onto the ice. The last time the U.S. and Canada met in a best-in-class world final that required an overtime session was the gold medal game of the 2010 Olympics, when Sidney Crosby scored an overtime goal in Vancouver that sent the home nation into hysterics. McDavid, just like Crosby 15 years ago, shows that Canadian hockey icons know how to deliver in the biggest moments on the biggest of stages. It was an edge-of-your-seat match for viewers. The teams traded goals in the first period; Nathan McKinnon of Canada struck first, before American Brady Tkachuck evened things up with a little more than three minutes left in the period, after an Austin Matthews wraparound instigated the action. The U.S. started to sense victory potential in the second, when Jake Sanderson gave the Americans a 2-1 advantage. But a Sam Bennett goal equalized the affair, before a scoreless third period sent the game into sudden-death. The politically-tinged tension of this championship game was unmistakable. Canada has taken exception to U.S. President Donald Trump’s pronouncement that the country could soon be America’s 51st state: during previous games in the tournament that took place in Montreal, fans booed the “Star Spangled Banner.” The atmosphere felt much different Thursday night, in Boston: red “Make America Great Again” hats dotted the crowd. “USA! USA!” chants were particularly fervent. Last Saturday’s meeting between the neighbors, in round-robin play, saw three fights between the teams in nine seconds. Team USA won that round, and the rivalry matchup drew 10.1 million North American viewers, the highest number recorded outside the Stanley Cup Final since 2014, according to the NHL. Trump has adopted the U.S. team as his own. He posted on Truth Social Thursday that, although he wouldn’t be able to attend the game because of a prior commitment, he wanted to “to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State.” He’s taken to calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “governor”—and relished another chance to get under his skin. Trump wrote that “he’d be watching and that if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome.” Later, the President shared a video showing that he indeed called the U.S. team before the game. “I just want to wish you a lot of luck. You really are a skilled group of people. It’s an honor to talk to you,” he said over a phone held by U.S. coach Mike Sullivan. “There’s no pressure whatsoever.” The players in the locker room laughed. “I can tell you honestly, every person in here—players, staff, management, coaches—we are all proud Americans and we want to represent the country the best way we can,” Sullivan responded. “Just go out and have a good time,” Trump said. “You’re going to win, and we love America, we love you guys. We’ll be watching tonight, bring it home.” The U.S. failed to do so this time around, giving Canada some well-deserved gratification. “You can’t take our country,” Trudeau gloated on X. “And you can’t take our game.” But Trump may take some satisfaction: While U.S. national teams competing on the world stage tended to distance themselves from him in his first term—the U.S. women’s soccer team in 2019 relished trolling him—this hockey team seemed to embrace the attention Trump lavished upon them. A victory could have given Trump and his supporters a sort of first MAGA world title. There will be other chances. These teams can meet again in the upcoming Winter Olympics, next year in Milan. Sports fans around the world will be watching. The President very much among them.

When Alex Marrero, superintendent of Denver Public Schools, went to visit some of the classrooms in his district on Feb. 5, the same day that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raided apartment buildings in the city, he noticed significant changes to the environment. Upon walking into one classroom that had over 30 students enrolled, Marrero saw only seven children present. He says that one young student did not recognize him and asked the teacher if Marrero was “one of them” in Spanish—referring to an ICE agent—since he was wearing a suit and tie. In that moment, Marrero recognized that the district needed to act on what he says is their most important core value: “Students first.” So on Feb. 12, Marrero led Denver Public Schools to become the first U.S. school district to sue the Trump Administration over its policy allowing ICE immigration agents in schools. The action followed significant movements made on President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, which saw the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescind the latest version of the protected areas policy which was issued in 2021 by the Biden Administration. A new directive, titled “Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas,” ended the practice of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents avoiding “sensitive” areas—including elementary and secondary schools, colleges, hospitals, and churches— for enforcement actions. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement on Jan. 21. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.” This policy overture is just one in a slew of immigration crackdown policies and Executive Orders that the Trump Administration has put forth. Denver Public Schools v. Noem, the lawsuit filed by Denver Public Schools—Colorado’s largest public school district—against the DHS and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, argues that the new directive gives ICE “unchecked authority” to enforce immigration in schools, and that the district has since been “hindered in fulfilling its mission of providing education and life services to the students who are refraining from attending DPS schools for fear of immigration enforcement actions occurring on DPS school grounds.” In the meantime, the school system is asking for a temporary restraining order to prohibit ICE and CBP’s enforcement of the policy. Marrero says that he and the district are not “anti law enforcement” nor are they planning on “obstructing ICE agents.” “Our vision is to educate kids, and it becomes unnecessarily difficult with the potential of non-emergency law enforcement action,” he says. “Also, we have to protect the sanctity of the schoolhouse, because I do not believe that they are going to find warlords and gang leaders sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the colorful rug learning how to read.” The Migration Policy Institute estimated in 2019 that 733,000 school-aged children lived in the United States without legal status. Beyond this, the American Immigration Council estimated in 2021 that more than six million children shared a home with at least one family m Anna Fusco, the president of the Broward Teachers Union in South Florida, says that in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s new policy in schools, there was “panic” and “uncertainty” from parents, teachers, and students. They initially saw attendance dip, and the “stress levels skyrocketed.” But Fusco says that the union has worked with other South Florida teachers’ unions to quell concerns and fears of the over 10,000 Broward union members she represents. She is keen to express to community members that schools can still remain safe for students—her view is not one that endorses obstructing law enforcement, but she’s also set on not allowing federal agents to enter the school without a warrant reviewed by attorneys. “Teachers are teachers first and foremost,” Fusco says. “We're never going to violate the law, but we have rights.” Fusco was a Broward teacher until she was elected as president of the union full time in 2016. She says that the concern of deportation is similar to what it was during Trump’s first term, but this time it’s heightened. “Educators are angry. Teachers just want to teach, and not every day have to be overloaded with another thing to protect a child from,” Fusco says. “We signed up to teach because we want kids to blossom and flourish. We grow to love our students, and it’s become very cumbersome on a lot of our teachers and schools.” Marrero agrees, stating that “no student can learn under anxiety stress, no teacher can teach under those conditions,” and this stress weighed heavily on his decision to sue the Trump Administration. Adelaide, a teacher in the Cincinnati Public Schools, spends her days working with students from immigrant communities, and says first and foremost, what she’s seeing in the classroom is “fear.” “I had an eighth grader come up and hug me goodbye, and I nearly lost it—the whole family just said ‘Sorry, we can’t come to school anymore. It’s not safe,’ and that’s been heartbreaking” she says. “And a lot of them are documented or have pending cases. But there’s just no trust in the government right now to respect the cases already happening.” Adelaide says the school is navigating Trump’s immigration crackdowns by providing resources to those in need. Her school has hosted multiple “Know Your Rights” events for immigrant families, which teach people what to do in various scenarios, including when approached or questioned by ICE, if a loved one is detained, and how to avoid immigration fraud. These events have had a pro bono immigration lawyer present to listen to questions from parents. Other school districts, such as New York Public Schools and Chicago Public Schools, have posted resources to best aid students, parents, educators, and community members, and statements to reify their support of immigrant communities. PTAlink, which connects the Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) across New York City, for example, has posted lists of toolkits, “know your rights” cards, and other digital resources that show how to navigate different situations with law enforcement. Said resources have been translated into multiple languages. In 2017, the San Lorenzo Unified School District Board of Education passed a Safe Haven resolution that affirmed the district’s commitment to supporting the educational journeys of students, regardless of their documentation status. Superintendent of San Lorenzo District, Daryl Camp, says that they’ve reified this resolution in the wake of Trump’s second term. The district, which is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, shared a “resources and support for our immigrant families” page, reassuring that the district will not release student or family information without a warrant, and stating that they “will continue to stand” with their students and community. Camp, who is also incoming president of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), says a lot of work is going into educating immigrant families as to how they can best protect the children. With over 50% of the students attending TK-12 schools in San Lorenzo being Hispanic or Latino, Camp recognizes that families are fearful. In his conversations with other administrators in ACSA, he says he has heard discussions about administrators being concerned of what they will need to do if a child of immigrants does not have parents to go home to after the school day has ended. Camp says he and the school district have learned from Trump’s first term and the pandemic and now host their own “Know Your Rights” presentations virtually, since some families “don’t feel comfortable going to a common area.” The San Lorenzo district has also provided training for school administrators, and gave the school’s social workers, office managers, and counselors access to an attorney to know what they should do if federal agents show up, because they “never know” who the first contact might be for immigration officials. “This is not a bluff. This is us putting our hands up saying ‘Let's get back to doing what we've been trained to do, which is educate kids,’” Marrero says, adding that since the lawsuit has been filed, other school districts have inquired with him about the process. “We’re not alone in this.”

Germany has long been considered a global leader on climate change and the clean energy transition. In its landmark Climate Action Law adopted in December 2023, the country aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030 and reach climate neutrality by 2045, along with setting annual emission budgets for various sectors until 2030. Former chancellor Angela Merkel was often referred to as the "climate chancellor" for her efforts to tackle emission reduction on the international level. And climate was an important issue for voters choosing her replacement in the 2021 German election. But as Germans prepare to head to the polls on Feb. 23 for a snap election, climate is not quite as important a factor as it used to be, says Marc Weissgerber, executive director of climate think tank E3G. “”From the voter's perspective, the priority is not as big anymore,” he says. According to a January survey by Deutschlandtrend, immigration and the economy were cited as the biggest concerns for voters, with only 13% of those surveyed mentioning environmental and climate protection—similar to the top concerns in the U.S. elections last fall. Reflecting this shift in public opinion, politicians are turning away from climate too. On the far right, there is the Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD), which is second in national polls. It has questioned the legitimacy of climate change and, much like President Trump on this side of the Atlantic, has called for Germany to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords. But the AfD, whilst pre-election surveys suggest it could perform well, trails the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), whose leader Friedrich Merz could end up as the German chancellor, according to polls. And Merz, although less vehemently anti-climate than the AfD, has nonetheless promised to move away from previous governments' environmentally-focused policies, which aimed to use climate spending as a way to boost the economy. Instead, he wants to prioritize the country’s economic and industrial strength. While on the campaign trail, he said that the economic policy of recent years had been geared “almost exclusively toward climate protection,” according to Politico. “I want to say it clearly as I mean it: We will and we must change that.” Analysts say Merz’s comments reflect how the country’s green energy goals are increasingly seen as out of step with goals to boost economic growth. Germany’s manufacturing industry, for example, which has propelled its economy for decades, is on the decline. “Climate action is taking a back seat compared to industrial action, as Germany pushes to reposition its economic and industrial model,” says Olivia Lazard, senior research fellow at Carnegie Europe. “The prices of energy and material consumption have risen in Germany, which creates a lot of economic anxiety and political economic polarization.” A costly transition Behind the shift is a reality that politicians in several countries have been grappling with: the adoption of green energy has come at a cost for Germany that many now see as too high. In April 2024, Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which regulates the country’s energy supply networks, announced that the cost of the country’s transition to renewable energy, an estimated 450 billion euros ($498.4 billion USD), would be passed on to consumers through their energy bills. This comes as Germans continue to pay high prices for fossil fuels in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine—as of last fall, German households were paying 74% more for gas than before the war. And natural gas— which was meant to be a bridge towards decarbonization given that it produces less CO2 than coal or oil— was harder to access. “It sort of sent the German narrative and the political mobilization and economic mobilization for the climate fight into disarray, not out of unwillingness to do so, but out of difficulty from an industrial and economic capacity,” says Lazar. As a result, the green transition has been losing favor with voters—many of whom are feeling pinched by the rising cost of living. “They have taken an aggressive stance to move away [from fossil fuels], but it's not always proven cost effective, and cost for most people is the key.” says Robert Orttung, a professor of sustainability and international affairs at the George Washington University. Beyond Berlin The possibility of a change in the German government’s priorities matters well beyond Berlin, with experts warning the impact could be felt globally. Germany has the largest economy in Europe and has, in past years, more than exceeded its climate financing goals for poorer countries. Now, with the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Accords and rolling back climate initiatives under the Trump administration, Germany could establish itself as a leader on the climate front. But if it steps back as well, the repercussions could be felt across Europe. “It would certainly have a huge impact if Germany falters,” Lazzard says. Take for example what is one of the world’s key climate initiatives: the so-called Loss and Damage fund, established during the 2022 climate summit in Egypt, known as COP27, to help lower-income countries recover from natural disasters. A key priority of last year’s annual climate summit, COP29, was to get wealthy nations to commit more money to support the fund. Germany pledged 94 million Euros ($100 million USD) to the fund in Nov. 2023, but the total $700 million put forward by wealthy nations by the end of COP29 “doesn’t come close” to meeting demand, according to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. With the Trump Administration pulling back from funding climate initiatives, other high-income countries might be tasked with filling in—though many are uninclined to do so as they face down the same budgetary and populist pressures as Germany. “Whether the Germans and the Europeans in general are willing to step up and really start to pay more

The first major conservative gathering since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration quickly became a stage for a symbolic homecoming: pardoned January 6 rioters, some of whom were convicted of assaulting law enforcement while storming the U.S. Capitol four years ago, were now celebrated as heroes among the party’s loyal base. “The J6ers are here at CPAC!” said former Trump strategist Steve Bannon on Thursday, drawing raucous cheers at the Conservative Political Action Conference. While the annual gathering has a history of promoting Trump's efforts to falsely portray all those who participated in the deadly riot as victims of entrapment or unfair prosecution, this year's CPAC has embraced that sentiment more strongly than ever in the wake of Trump granting all of the J6 rioters clemency on his first day back in office. At a panel discussion on Friday called “The J6 sham,” conservative commentator Julie Kelly thanked Trump for the pardons and tapped into a growing sense of solidarity among those who stormed the Capitol and their supporters. “Now it’s cool,” she said. “Everyone’s like, free the J6ers! It’s the cause of the day, but it wasn’t back then.” The sentiment at the National Harbor in Maryland over the four-day gathering, which featured speeches from Vice President J.D. Vance and Trump ally Elon Musk, is at odds with the rest of the country. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that more than 80% of Americans oppose pardons for those convicted of violent crimes, and a little over half disagree with pardons for nonviolent offenders. Yet, at CPAC, the atmosphere was one of triumph. Several pardoned rioters were interviewed on Bannon’s “War Room” show in the CPAC exhibition complex. For many of them, this year’s CPAC represented a moment of vindication. “We became celebrities here. It’s weird,” said Brian Mock, who was convicted of six felonies and five misdemeanors, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers. Some hinted that they intended to pursue financial compensation for their time in prison. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, and other pardoned rioters wandered the event’s halls, stopping to chat with attendees and pose for selfies. On Friday afternoon, they gathered on the east side of the Capitol grounds for a press conference, where the mood appeared jovial as the pardoned rioters celebrated their clemency and chanted “USA.” “Get over it,” said Joe Biggs, a former leader of the Proud Boys, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 17 years in prison. “We’re here.” (Tarrio was arrested after the press conference for simple assault against a counter protestor, the U.S. Capitol Police said.) The Jan. 6 celebration surrounding CPAC was not without its controversies, however. Some pardoned rioters claimed they were denied entry to the event, sparking outrage on social media. Richard Barnett, who became infamous for putting his feet on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk during the riot, said he was among those initially turned away, despite having been granted a pardon. “I am considered a national hero,” Barnett said in a video he posted to social media. “I’m a J6er and I have an unlimited, unconditional presidential pardon from President Trump… I went when he called me, I stood up. I spent all this time in prison for my country.” “I don’t understand why CPAC would do this to me,” he added. Rhodes was also initially denied entry, which led to a flurry of online complaints from supporters, calling out what they perceived as a betrayal. CPAC’s response came quickly. In a statement on X Thursday morning, CPAC denied that the conference had rejected individuals based on their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack. “It is untrue that we are not allowing people to come to CPAC because of their involvement with J6,” the statement read. “In fact, CPAC has been a constant supporter of this persecuted community and we support wholeheartedly President Trump’s pardons of the J6 victims.” By the afternoon, the pardoned rioters were granted access, and the celebration continued. But even as the J6ers basked in their newfound celebrity status, the shadow of their actions continues to loom over the broader political discourse. While Trump frequently said on the campaign trail that he would pardon some of those charged in relation to the Capitol riot, many of his allies predicted he would stop short of those charged with or convicted of violent felony crimes, such as assaulting police officers, using a deadly weapon, participating in a riot and destroying government property. Trump ultimately issued a sweeping pardon that covered nearly 1,600 individuals convicted in connection with the January 6 attack, drawing pushback from law enforcement officials and even some Republicans. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally in the Senate, said it was a “mistake” for Trump to pardon the sentences of “people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently.” During his confirmation hearing to be FBI Director last month, Kash Patel said he did not agree with Trump’s decision to commute the sentences “of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement.” While the J6ers found their moment in the spotlight, the broader Republican Party may be forced to grapple with its evolving identity. Indeed, many at CPAC treated the pardons as a righting of a wrong, echoing the rhetoric of Trump loyalists like Bannon, who hailed the pardons as a triumph over a “deep state” that had unjustly targeted conservatives. “It took tremendous courage for President Trump to do that,” Bannon said