At CPAC, the conservative conference of the summer, the rhetoric was heated and entirely tipped towards Donald Trump and the most extreme elements in the GOP. (…) But in the auditorium, under signs saying “FIRE PELOSI” and “AWAKE NOT WOKE”, CPAC attendees were getting a dose of angry rhetoric and told repeatedly that they were at war with their fellow Americans. (This rhetoric has only intensified since CPAC, after the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property Monday, sparking calls for “civil war” from some prominent MAGA and far-right personalities.) The event was bookended by two strongmen: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and the “MAGA King” himself, former President Donald Trump. Orban (fresh off the heels of a controversy in which he delivered a “pure Nazi” speech back in Hungary, according to one of his longtime advisors) treated the crowd to a spiel of unapologetic Christian nationalism and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in a prime speaking slot on Thursday, the first day of the convention. “We are at war,” former Trump advisor Steve Bannon told attendees on Thursday evening. “A political and ideological war.” He also described President Joe Biden as an “illegitimate, imposter” and warned the crowd that they were living in an “authoritarian state.” “This is truly a battle between those who want to save America and those who want to destroy her,” Republican nominee for Arizona governor Kari Lake told the crowd. “That’s where we are at the moment. My question to you is: Are you in this fight with us?”
via vice: Even Before the FBI Search, MAGA World Was Saying It’s at War