GRAPEVINE, Texas — Brandon Straka, a right-wing commentator, offered an unexpected assessment of Marjorie Taylor Greene at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

“A directive has gone out that Marjorie Taylor Greene is a traitor,” Straka told the CPAC crowd, referring to the former member of Congress from Georgia, who broke with President Donald Trump last year after accusing him of drifting away from his “America First” promises. “And if you want to be part of the in crowd, it is mandatory that you must hate her, too.”

Straka was rejecting that directive. From the main stage of CPAC, he gave his audience permission to support Greene, even if doing so might be taken by some as a tacit criticism of Trump. “When did we become the left?” he asked. “When did we become hive-minded, mean and tribal?”

It was far from the only sign of the divisions roiling the conservative movement, which were on display this past week at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center on the outskirts of Dallas, where CPAC staged its annual gathering.

Speaker after speaker warned about the fissures that have emerged since Trump began a war with Iran. The conflict has split his base over the nation’s role in global affairs and how fervently the United States should back Israel in foreign conflicts. It has also opened debates over the resurgence of antisemitism from some on the right.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a critic of the Iran war, worried that Republicans were entering the midterm elections “with self-inflicted wounds,” while Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally who has warned against sending troops to the region, said Republican voters would have to decide for themselves what “America First actually stands for.”

CPAC organizers typically seek to establish orthodoxy with their roster of speakers. That hasn’t been difficult in recent years, given how steadfastly Trump’s base has embraced him and his priorities. That has been true even when those priorities have changed — and even when he has crossed what were previously seen as political red lines, such as whipping up the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol or being convicted of multiple felonies.

This year, organizers created space for dissenters, too.

Trump was elected to his second term on an America First agenda, viciously criticizing past presidents for becoming embroiled in foreign conflicts, and promising never to be pulled into what he called “forever wars.” He also pledged to make life more affordable for everyday Americans.

Trump skipped CPAC this year for the first time since 2016, so he did not get to see the fissures up close. His past appearances at the conference offered stark contrasts to where he has taken his presidency so far this term. At CPAC in 2024, Trump contrasted himself with those who had “gorged themselves on the spoils of endless wars.”

There remained plenty of evidence of the president’s broad support among the Republican base, especially on issues like immigration. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, received a warm welcome as he discussed deportation statistics. So did Greg Bovino, the outgoing Border Patrol official, who took a bow after a rocky tenure as the face of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.