CPAC goes global
America’s flagship conservative conference has franchised its name and its stage across four continents — a traveling circuit that links the U.S. right to Orbán, Bolsonaro, Milei, and Europe’s nationalist parties.
CPAC is where the American right gathers and where Donald Trump’s political career took off. Since the late 2010s, the American Conservative Union has taken the brand worldwide. This page grades the franchises and the marquee speakers as fact, and is careful to document a networking circuit without inflating it into a single command structure.
What this page is about
The Conservative Political Action Conference, run since 1974 by the American Conservative Union (ACU), is the premier gathering of the U.S. right — the stage that helped launch Trump’s political career in 2011. Over the past decade the ACU has franchised the brand abroad: CPAC events have been staged in Brazil, Hungary, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Mexico, among others. The same name and format, transplanted from country to country.
The franchises function as a shared stage. CPAC Brazil became a fixture of the Bolsonaro movement; CPAC Hungary, launched in 2022, is a showcase for Viktor Orbán, who has used it to preach a “Make Europe Great Again” message and urge the U.S. and European right to coordinate — the same year he keynoted CPAC in Texas. This page documents the circuit and the traffic across it, and marks the line between a networking phenomenon (fact) and a single coordinated international (an inference we attribute, not assert).
The same investigation, restaged one beat at a time. Step through it here, or present it fullscreen.
CPAC goes global.
America's flagship conservative conference has franchised its name and its stage across four continents — a traveling networking circuit that links the U.S. right to Orbán, Bolsonaro, Milei and Europe's nationalist parties.
The franchise, the marquee acts, and the line we hold
The flagship, exported: CPAC now runs franchises on four continents.
FACTCPAC — run since 1974 by the American Conservative Union — is the premier gathering of the U.S. right and the stage that helped kick-start Trump's political career in 2011. Since the late 2010s the ACU has taken the brand global: CPAC-branded events have been held in Brazil, Hungary, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Mexico, among others. It is a franchise model applied to a political conference — the same name, format, and network exported to friendly movements abroad.
The marquee franchises: Bolsonaro's Brazil and Orbán's Hungary.
FACTTwo franchises show the export most clearly. CPAC Brazil became a recurring event of the Bolsonaro movement, headlined by Jair and Eduardo Bolsonaro. CPAC Hungary, launched in 2022, has been a showcase for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who used the stage to promote a 'Make Europe Great Again' message and to call on the American and European right to coordinate — the same year Orbán also keynoted CPAC in Texas. The traffic runs both directions: U.S. figures headline abroad, and foreign nationalist leaders headline in the United States, each lending the other legitimacy.
What it is — and what we don't claim it is.
FACTCPAC International is a documented brand-and-networking circuit: a shared stage that manufactures legitimacy, trades endorsements, and circulates tactics and messaging across borders. What we do not assert is that it is a single command structure issuing orders, or that a leader's appearance proves coordination on any specific act. The franchises and the speaker line-ups are fact; the inference that they constitute one unified international is the attributed argument. Keeping that line sharp is what makes the documented part unassailable.
A conference is a soft-power instrument
A conference confers legitimacy, builds the address book, and standardizes the message. CPAC’s franchises are the most visible node of the transnational far-right network the Far-Right International hub documents — the place where the operatives (like Fernando Cerimedo), the institutions (Atlas Network), and the strategists (Steve Bannon) meet the elected leaders. Documented ties, graded case by case; the conspiracy version left out.
Questions worth taking seriously
Isn't a conference just a conference?
For a domestic event, largely yes. What makes CPAC International notable is the franchising: the same U.S. brand deliberately transplanted to Brazil, Hungary and beyond, headlined by leaders like Bolsonaro and Orbán, with U.S. and foreign figures swapping stages. That’s a documented networking and legitimacy machine, not a neutral trade show — while still not being proof of a single coordinated command, which we don’t claim.
How is this different from any international political meeting?
Scale, brand, and direction. This isn’t ad hoc diplomacy; it’s one U.S. organization licensing its flagship event to allied movements worldwide and using it to circulate a shared message (“Make Europe/America Great Again”) and shared tactics. The point isn’t that meeting is sinister — it’s that a coordinated brand export is happening in the open and deserves to be mapped.
If you are named on this page
If you are named on this page, or are a party materially affected by the claims made here, and you wish to respond, correct the record, or add context, use the Contact page. Responses are published verbatim alongside the original claim, with the sender identified and the date of receipt. The channel stays open for the life of the page.
This site aggregates and grades a record that other outlets and primary sources have already put on the record. Every FACT-graded claim above is sourced to court filings, government reports, sworn whistleblower disclosures, published investigative journalism, or named-source statements. The citations are the accountability mechanism; this section is how you get on the record too.