❓WHAT HAPPENED: The American Conservative Union’s tax documents reveal large payouts to its chairman and his wife, despite the organization’s flagship conference – CPAC – being in terminal decline.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp and his wife.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Recent tax filings, amidst a declining CPAC event in Dallas, Texas.
💬KEY QUOTE: “There is a cancer in the organization.” – resigned ACU Treasurer Bob Beauprez.
🎯IMPACT: CPAC attendance has significantly decreased, and ticket prices have plummeted, as the Schlapps have enriched themselves.
The American Conservative Union’s latest 990 tax filings reveal that Chairman Matt Schlapp is paying himself at least $837,444 per year, while his wife receives $178,605, bringing their combined annual compensation to $1,016,049 per year, The National Pulse can reveal.
The disclosures land as the Conservative Political Action Conference—CPAC, the ACU’s flagship event—appears to be in steep decline. President Donald J. Trump and several other major conservative figures did not attend this year’s gathering. Attendance has fallen from more than 10,000 when Schlapp took over the organization in 2014, to a max of around 3,000, with many entering on complimentary or media passes. Ticket prices, once several hundred dollars, dropped as low as $17.
Historically, the ACU chairmanship was viewed as a position of service to the conservative movement, not a lucrative role. The current compensation arrangement marks a dramatic break from that tradition.
In recent years, The National Pulse has reported exclusively using whistleblowers in the organization, some of whom have now resigned.
In 2023, Carlton Huffman, a former staffer for candidate Herschel Walker, accused Schlapp of groping him, leading to a lawsuit demanding $9 million for battery and defamation. An investigation by CNN found Huffman received a $480,000 settlement via insurance. In 2025, Schlapp stood accused of more sexual assault, this time in a Virginia bar.
Charlie Gerow – a long-time ally of Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) chairman Matt Schlapp – resigned his position as Vice Chairman of CPAC’s parent organization, the American Conservative Union (ACU) in 2023, stating: “I am calling on my former colleagues to authorize an independent investigation into the charges against Matt Schlapp, to conduct an independent forensic audit of the organizations finances.”
His resignation was swiftly followed by conservative movement bigwig Morton Blackwell, who heads the Leadership Institute.
In early 2023, ACU Treasurer Bob Beauprez resigned, stating: “I cannot deliver a financial report at the upcoming board meeting with any confidence in the accuracy of the numbers.” He added: “A cancer has been metastasizing within the organization for years. It must be diagnosed, treated, and cured, or it will destroy ACU.”
In 2022, The National Pulse exclusively revealed how the Schlapps had taken Soros-linked money to push “Race, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Commitment,” a precursor to the DEI fight that took place in the years shortly after. The ACU received a cash grant of $183,250 from The New Venture Fund, a Soros and Clinton-linked group.
In the immediate aftermath of January 6th, Schlapp appeared on Fox News to state that veteran Ashli Babbitt – who he misidentified as a 16-year-old – “maybe deserved to be shot”.
“I understand there’s a 16-year-old young woman who was shot. Now maybe she was doing terrible things and deserved to be shot,” Schlapp said.
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