National conservatives from around the world gathered at the Westin Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for a conference that can best be described as a conservative nationalist international.
Natcon was started in May 2019 by Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony as a way to bring together and advance nationalist conservative thought leaders from around the world. Previous conferences have been held in London, Rome, Orlando, and Brussels. In 2025, the conference returned to Washington, D.C., coinciding with the triumph of the ideology in the White House.
The speakers and attendees outlined their vision for the world at a time when national conservatism has reached its zenith of influence.
A conservative international
Conservatives flew in from around the world, but one of the largest contingents was from Hungary. Mostly the products of Budapest’s investment in a conservative intellectual infrastructure, part of the unofficial delegation consisted of six students from the Matthias Corvinus Institute.
One of these students, Eniko Vers, 21, gave a positive assessment of President Donald Trump’s second term, noting his elevation of Hungary on the global stage and providing a good example for the country’s leaders to follow, altered from “America First” to “Hungary First.”
The president was on the lips of nearly everyone.
Karla, a 22-year-old French woman, introduced herself as her social media brand, “French Girl for Trump.” She told the Washington Examiner she’s been a hardcore fan since 2016, going further in her support after moving from Paris to Miami nearly two years ago. Karla specifically praised the president’s controversial decision to deploy the National Guard to Washington, D.C.
“I see the difference now with Trump, it’s safer,” she said of the capital. “I myself, as a woman, and in general as a young girl, I feel much more safer than before.”
An immigrant herself, Karla also praised Trump’s moves on immigration, arguing that many recent arrivals “don’t contribute anything to the United States, and they expect to have everything just because they’re immigrants. It doesn’t work that way.”
Next to Trump, another one of the foremost topics discussed at Natcon was the United Kingdom. Widely-publicized battles over the flying of the English flag and revelations about government cover-ups of pedophilic Pakistani rape gangs have triggered renewed interest in the country from the U.S., often not in a good way. The U.K. was repeatedly held up as a dystopia over its approaches to immigration, crime, censorship, and more.
The constant negative attention struck some British attendees the wrong way.
“The theme seems to be: the U.K. sucks,” Bombshells podcast host Fleur Power said of this year’s Natcon.
“And you’ve got, like, a migrant trying to rape you in every corner, and it seems a bit over the top,” she added.
Power blamed the perception on social media, saying some users were amplifying bad news in order to gain the attention of X CEO Elon Musk, who was helpful in drawing attention to issues around immigration.
“But, you know, it’s still a nice country. Like we definitely have our problems, but it does feel like the States are looking at us and thinking it’s way worse than it is,” she argued.
Power wasn’t short on criticism of her country, however, bemoaning what her “land of hope and glory” had become – a reference she made several times. She acknowledged the disconnect in her harsh criticisms of her home yet offense in hearing Americans make the same criticisms, agreeing that it was like criticizing a family member while taking offense if someone else delivered it.
Another British attendee, a Westminster journalist who requested anonymity, made similar points. He gave the example of when he visited Maryland – the owner of the house he was staying at told his Uber driver to stay on the highway the whole time, “because otherwise you might get carjacked in southeast D.C.”
“Now, that is not something that happens in Britain, not something that happens in Europe,” he said.
The British journalist also countered the U.S. focus on the Pakistani rape gangs in the U.K. by pointing out the interethnic strife and sexual violence seen in the U.S. on a much larger scale.
“So it seems to be a kind of, ‘Europe has fallen’ thing here,” he said, referring to Natcon.
“It feels like everyone you meet is a mini Tucker Carlson, and they’re like, ‘Your fricking Muslims have taken over your country!’ It’s kind of absurd,” the reporter said.
Despite this, he gave a highly positive overall assessment of the U.S. and the Trump administration. He disagreed with the argument that the bickering between the different nationalists showed any such movement to create a conservative internationale was doomed. He largely brushed off the ribbing from American conservatives, finding their influence in his country a welcome one.
“[Vice President JD] Vance is directly intervening against the British government to prevent it from snopping and surveillance on British citizens. And if we have any hope of making the next four years of this current government more bearable… the American administration, we need them to intervene,” the reporter said.
Unfortunately for attendees, the most prominent slated foreign visitor was absent – U.K. MP Nigel Farage, slated to speak at 2 p.m., was unable to make it after his flight from London was delayed.
Visions of the future
The talks at day one of Natcon were a mix of reactions and plans for the immediate future, combined with deeper philosophical musings around conservatism and nationalism. Speakers were much more willing to dip into more controversial material than in similar conferences, or at least material considered controversial before Trump.
One of the speeches best showcasing the new developments in MAGA thought was delivered by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), who criticized excesses of legal immigration and proclaimed an American nation.
Denouncing the common liberal interpretation of American identity as a credal nation, he argued that it was instead a nation made up of courageous pioneers and settlers who created something “distinct, unique, and real.” To showcase his position, he argued that the U.S.’s successes could not be recreated elsewhere by imposing the U.S. Constitution.
“If you impose a carbon copy of the U.S. Constitution in Kazakhstan, they won’t magically turn into Americans,” Schmitt said.
The senator gave a grandiose assessment of the U.S. role and destiny in world history, calling it the “most essential Western nation,” founded by the “most courageous and most adventurous.” No other people, he argued, best embodied the “restless and dynamic spirit” of Western civilization.
The U.S.’s heritage, he proclaimed, was the “Most magnificent heritage ever known to man.”
Schmitt’s party comrade in the lower chamber, Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV), delivered a similar message. While giving a speech advocating for reindustrialization, Riley praised the former Republican presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan, saying he should receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“Buchanan was pretty much right about everything, 20 years before everyone recognized it,” Moore said.
One of the overriding themes of the conference was has to manage the eclectic coalition that President Donald Trump had built for his 2024 victory, and how to balance the different interests at play.
Rachel Bovard, Senior Director of Policy at the Conservative Partnership Institute, began her speech by praising the new tech right for its support for Trump in 2024, but quickly turned to excoriating it.
She fervently denied that anyone could be a conservative and transhumanist, dismissing the latter ideology as “stale and boring.” Transhumanists rejected the inherent dignity in humans bestowed by their creator, she argued, making them incompatible with conservatism and Christianity.
Taking a swipe at the rich donors making up the tech right, Bovard called them “Billionaire transhumanist Screwtapes,” a reference to the demon in C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters.
Hazony, in his opening address, gave a more charitable assessment. He explicitly warned against any purity spiraling or purging of coalitions, arguing that the greatest element of political success in a coalition was choosing to honor your coalition partners.
A growing conference
Attendees who had been to multiple Natcons quickly noted a difference in this year’s conference, mostly for the better.
A sense of optimism was palpable. Hazony laid heavy praise on the second Trump administration, holding it as unparalleled in modern history.
“I think the Trump administration is the best I’ve ever seen,” he said, drawing applause.
“I get up in the morning, and I’m happy,” Hazony added, joking that his wife knows this is a departure from the norm.
He praised Trump’s handling of immigration, crime, reindustrialization, foreign policy shifts towards empowering regional actors, and more. Better yet, he held that the second Trump administration represented a seizure of power of Natcon’s allies.
“Our friends are in power,” Hazony told the audience. “Hundreds of people like you are in the administration.”
Power said 2025’s Natcon was her third, and the difference between it and best ventures was palpable, all for the better.
She smirked as she spoke of the “infamous” 2024 Natcon in Brussels, which witnessed a deluge of problems. The venue was moved three times, it was briefly shut down altogether by Brussels Mayor Emir Kir, police locked guests in a venue, guests had to be “smuggled in,” caterers weren’t let in, and more.
The difference between that and the conference in Washington, D.C., where no agitators or counterprotesters were present, couldn’t have been more visible.
“Well, it’s in Washington, D.C. You have so much money here and you have nice hotels and nice surroundings and it’s a really hopeful time for you guys here, and the energy is different. It’s like, you are in your summer,” Power said.
The physical state of the capital was example enough, she argued, in stark contrast to Brussels.
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“Things are going well and you’ve got the National Guard that’s cleaned up the city. Compare that to Brussels, which was absolutely vile, disgusting, and the mayor was cancelling things, and it was rainy… Men harassing me and graffiti everywhere. It’s a stark contrast there. But yeah, I think that Natcon’s growing,” she said.
“That’s a start. So hopefully it keeps going. Hopefully it comes back to the U.K., cause we need it,” Power concluded.
