(CNN) – Former President Donald Trump will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida next Sunday, according to a source familiar with the matter, while former Vice President Mike Pence declined an invitation to speak at the conference, said two sources. to CNN.
One source said organizers are still hoping to change Pence’s mind about his presence, while another source said Pence plans to stay under the radar for the next six months. Politico first reported that Pence had declined the invitation.
The divergence between the two former leaders, which arises as the Republican Party struggles to determine its future after Trump’s presidency, follows tensions between Trump and Pence over the January 6 riot at the Capitol and the role of de Pence. in certifying the election results for President Joe Biden.
“We accept that Joe Biden is the duly elected President of the United States,” former Pence chief of staff Marc Short told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Newsroom Saturday night, even though Pence played a part in the survival of the baseless theories of the United States. the voter. fraud that Trump committed repeatedly before the attack on Capitol Hill.
Unlike Trump, Pence attended Biden’s inauguration in Washington last month after skipping Trump’s farewell ceremony.
Short said on Saturday that Trump and Pence “left amicably (from the White House)” and have spoken ever since.
The source familiar with Trump’s plans to attend CPAC, and also familiar with the former president’s speech, told CNN on Saturday that he “will talk about the future of the Republican Party and the Conservative movement.”
“Also expect the 45th president to confront President Biden’s disastrous border and amnesty policies,” the source added.
The pledge to speak would mark Trump’s first public appearance following his departure from the White House last month and comes as high-ranking Republicans are divided on how to treat the former president, and his loyalists recently visited him in Florida.
One of Trump’s campaign managers, Brad Parscale, met with the former president at his club in Mar-a-Lago this week for an extended gathering, according to a family source. Utah Senator Mike Lee held a fund-raising campaign Saturday night in Mar-a-Lago, according to another family source, a possible sign that more visits were to come.
Rep. Louisiana-based Steve Scalise, the second-greatest Republican in the House of Representatives, met Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, CNN reported, the day before Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell vowed never to.
The dormant feud between Trump and McConnell has escalated in recent days, raising questions about whether the two can ever work together for the future of the Republican Party.
Trump criticized McConnell in a lengthy statement released Tuesday night after McConnell harshly criticized the former Senate president last Saturday and in an op-ed Monday in the United States. Wall Street Journaldespite the vote to acquit Trump in his second impeachment.
In his statement Tuesday, Trump pledged to support Senate primaries candidates who defend his worldview, something that could lead to a showdown with McConnell’s preferred candidates as the seven-year-old senator pushes Republicans who believe they have the best chance of to win in the upcoming midterm elections.
That tension underscores the divisions among top Republicans about how to navigate the party after Trump. Unlike McConnell, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy traveled to South Florida after the January 6 attack on the Capitol to meet with Trump and then declare unity with him to try to reclaim the House in 2022.
But McCarthy is leading a conference in which most members strongly support Trump, unlike Senate Republicans, who are divided over the former president and where some high-level leaders are happy to leave him behind and focus on uniting the party. Around ideas, not a person.
CNN’s Dana Bash, Kaitlan Collins and Manu Raju contributed to this report.