On the surface, this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was a garish pageant of jubilance and cruelty. But beneath this flashy exterior lurked something more serious: the outline of a transnational far-right coalition hell-bent on revenge.

What I witnessed in Washington, DC, in late February was a Republican Party that, despite largely being in control of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the US government, is still pushing a spite-driven narrative of victimhood and retribution to galvanize its base. Rallying around Donald Trump as a figurehead, the MAGA right is on a mission to purge the federal government and the American political landscape of its perceived enemies. Don’t be distracted by the carnival atmosphere: this political bloc takes itself very seriously, and it’s hard at work forming alliances with like-minded groups in other countries.

The halls of the Gaylord National Convention Center were home to a cast of colorful characters in a celebratory mood. An elderly group of five in yellow sequin jackets with giant glittering red letters hanging around their necks that, when properly assembled, spelled TRUMP. A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty with the words “TRUMP TRIBE OF TEXAS” on her dress. A photo booth flanked with red ring lights and a cardboard cutout of the president giving two thumbs up. Three tattooed millennial crypto investors calling themselves “the Maga Boyz” decked head to toe in matching stars and stripes.