Former President Donald Trump visited the Swamp on Thursday to meet with Republicans from both chambers of Congress. Trump met first with House Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club for a closed-door meeting discussing the GOP agenda toward a path to victory in November.
In a post-meeting press conference, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) shared that the former president “was warmly welcomed by the House Republican Conference.” With House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) by her side, Stefanik continued, “We are 100% unified behind his candidacy and are ready to get to work on behalf of the American people to secure the border, unleash American energy independence, bring back peace through strength, stand up for election integrity, and defeat this illegal weaponization of the justice system.” She added that the meeting was a “unifying event.”
“It was our great pleasure to host the president this morning, the 45th president, who will soon be reelected as the 47th president,” Johnson said during the press conference. The Speaker observed that “there is something happening in the country” with growing “energy and excitement and enthusiasm” for Trump’s campaign. He stated that November’s election will be the “most consequential election certainly of our lifetimes and probably, maybe, in the last century or more in America.”
“Everything is at stake,” Johnson continued. “The Biden administration and President Biden have made a mess of every area of public policy, and everyone in the country knows, and so they’re anxious for answers. They want a response to the things that have them so fed up, and our party is there to provide that.”
Appearing Thursday night on “Washington Watch,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) related, “President Trump was much more upbeat than he was the last time I saw him, which was in the New York courtroom.” Referring to the former president’s massive campaign donations haul following his conviction in Manhattan, Self noted, “He’s raised a ton of money since the end of that court case, a ton of money. But I will tell you, he was very upbeat.”
The congressman continued, “He’s very aggressive going forward. He’s got a plan to take the White House, he’s going to help us take a larger majority in the House and the Senate, so he’s very upbeat, very aggressive. And I will tell you, it was wonderful hearing his plans for those things that President Joe Biden has basically destroyed.”
Self acknowledged that the meeting was “a Republican conference, it wasn’t a public meeting,” but did share that Trump discussed such subjects as the economy and national security. Self also noted the “night and day” difference between Trump’s tenure as president and Biden’s, pointing to the nation’s open southern border, skyrocketing inflation, wars breaking out across the globe, and the increasing threats posed by both Russia and China. “I will go back to President Biden — all of this is because of the weakness of the Biden administration, we just need to realize that,” he concluded.
Both Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shared over social media that Trump teased the possibility of abolishing federal income tax, replacing it instead with more stringent trade tariffs. Greene quipped, “This will really help struggling Americans get back on their feet after 4 bad years of Bidenomics.”
According to an Axios report, Trump also cautioned House Republicans to discuss abortion “correctly.” While he claimed that pro-life policies and positions have “cost” the GOP political points, he did acknowledge that the issue is “too important to ignore,” encouraging Republicans to point out that Democrats are “radicals” when it comes to abortion and “support abortion so far along that nobody supports that.” Earlier this year, Trump indicated that he believed abortion to be a states’ issue in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
After his morning meeting with House Republicans, Trump met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). “This is an outstanding group of people. I’m with them 1,000%, they’re with me 1,000%. We agree just about on everything, and if there isn’t, we work it out,” Trump said of GOP senators in a press conference.
The former president also hammered the Biden administration on poor national security, economic, and immigration policies. “What’s happening to our country is of great concern to the group of people standing alongside of me,” Trump said, turning to the Republican senators present. He continued, “And I just wanted to say that we have great unity, we have great common sense, a lot of very smart people in this room and a lot of people that love our country, they love our country beyond just about all else.” He added, “The only thing that maybe supersedes it is their family and maybe their faith in certain instances, and that’s very nice.”
“I’ve had a really great relationship with just about everybody here, with everybody here, just about all of the senators,” Trump remarked. “And if it wasn’t fantastic, it gets worked out, and we have one thing in mind, and that’s making our country great.” He predicted that Republican incumbents and candidates will have “great success” at the ballot box in November.
Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) discussed the meeting on “Washington Watch” Thursday evening. “It was a great meeting. It was very unifying,” he said. “We need Republicans ready to go when he gets elected president to start enacting his agenda right away.”
Ricketts explained that Trump discussed a number of policy areas with GOP senators. “The things he talked about doing were fighting inflation and specifically around energy policy, making sure that we were developing our energy resources,” Ricketts recounted. “It’s a national security issue, would help bring down energy prices, it would help bring down inflation by doing so. That was a big deal.”
“We talked about having a strong navy,” Ricketts continued. “Obviously President Trump believed in that. Did it when he was president. He’ll do it again. This administration, the Biden administration, is actually reducing the size of our Navy at a time when Russian warships are in our hemisphere.” Other subjects of discussion included securing the border and reducing taxes, including Trump’s initiative to eliminate taxes on tips for servers. According to Fox News, a number of Republican senators appreciated this plan and decided to promote it themselves.
“So it really [was a] great meeting,” Ricketts concluded. “I can’t say enough good things about the president coming in and how upbeat he was. You know, we’re feeling very, very good about his opportunity to be reelected. And when he gets reelected, we need to move fast to enact his agenda.”
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
