Trump can expect receptive crowd at conservative gathering

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six years ago, as the "money, money, money, money" chorus of his reality TV show's theme song blasted, Donald Trump stepped out before the nation's largest gathering of conservative activists for the first time.

Bannon said Breitbart News, which he led before joining Trump's team last summer, and other conservative outlets first took note of the brash billionaire at his CPAC debut.

Stone and a gay Republican group had arranged the last-minute appearance, which Trump locked in with a donation to the American Conservative Union, which hosts the conference.

ACU chairman Matt Schlapp said the presidential candidates were asked to participate in a question-and-answer session, but Trump wanted to make a speech.

Trump's first speech to the group bore little resemblance to the mega-rallies that were the hallmark of his presidential campaign, although many of the themes were the same.

He tried to burnish his conservative credentials with assertions that he is pro-life and anti-gun control, while heaping praise on himself and his business acumen.

[...] he appeared to test-drive the "make America great again" phrase that would become his 2016 presidential campaign slogan.

Near the end of the speech he told the skeptical crowd that he was only thinking about running because he didn't like any of the potential candidates — prompting shouts of "Ron Paul" to break out.