WASHINGTON – WASHINGTON (AP) – donald trump is making a triumphant return to the Capitol on Thursday, meeting with House and Senate Republicans, his first since urging a mob to “fight like hell” before the January 6, 2021 attack. Republican Party lawmakers find themselves once again energized and reinvigorated by their bid to retake the White House.
Despite federal charges against Trump for Conspiring to Overturn the 2020 Electionand its recent Guilty verdict In an unrelated secret trial, the former Republican president arrived emboldened as the party’s presumptive nominee. He successfully purged critics of the Republican Party, silenced most skeptics, and brought once-critical lawmakers on board his MAGA-fueled campaign.
A room full of House Republicans sang “Happy Birthday” to Trump at the private breakfast at the GOP campaign headquarters, across the street from the Capitol. Lawmakers gave him a baseball and bat from the annual congressional game.
“We are thrilled to welcome back President Trump,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson one day earlier.
The Republican president questioned whether he asked Trump to respect the peaceful transfer of presidential power and commit to not having another January 6th. “Of course he respects it, we all do, and we all talk about it, ad nauseum.”
Trump told Johnson on Thursday that he thinks the House speaker is doing a “great job,” according to a Republican in the private meeting, and granted anonymity to discuss the matter. Trump asked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the speaker’s top Republican critic, if she was being nice to Johnson, another Republican said.
Trump is expected to deliver remarks and discuss issues that animate his campaign – including immigration deportations but also tax cuts and other priorities for a potential second term.
Many potential priorities for a new White House administration are being formulated by a constellation of outside groups, including Project 2025that are laying the groundwork for executive and legislative action, although Trump has made it clear that he has his own agenda.
But the private meetings with House and, late afternoon, Senate Republicans, so close to the Capitol, are suffused with the symbolism of Trump’s return as the US president who threatened the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
“It’s frustrating,” says former US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunnwho made his own unsuccessful run for Congress as a Maryland Democrat after Jan. 6, when police engaged in hand-to-hand combat to stop Trump supporters who stormed the building trying to overturn President Joe Biden’s election.
Dunn spoke of the “irony” of Trump returning to the area and lawmakers now embracing him. “It just shows the lack of backbone they have when they are truly putting the party and the person above the country,” he said.
Biden was abroad on Thursday participating in a Group of Seven summit major industrialized nations, but the president’s campaign unveiled a new ad blaming Trump for lighting the January 6th “fire” and threatening democracy.
Many of those who once stood up for Trump have long since left office, and the Republicans who remain appear increasingly excited about the possibility of him retaking the White House and the windfall that could mean for their own Republican majorities in Congress.
Johnson met with senators on Wednesday, before Trump’s arrival, as Republicans mapped out potential priorities.
Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who once blamed Trump for the “disgraceful” attack he called an “insurrection” now endorse the party’s presumptive candidate and said, “Of course I’ll be at the meeting.”
Sen. John Thune, the GOP leader who is vying to replace McConnell as leader, told the Associated Press he was interested in hearing from Trump about the fall elections. “I think there’s an opportunity to really make this a big win,” he said.
As democracies around the world are threatened by a far-right shift, experts warn that the US system, once seemingly immune to authoritarian impulses, is at risk from populist and extremist forces like those Trump inspired to plunder the Capitol.
“This is just another example of how House Republicans have bent the knee to Donald Trump,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Making Jan. 6 the cornerstone of his re-election campaign, Trump celebrates those who stormed the Capitol as “warriors” and “patriots” and has vowed to pardon any number of the more than 1,300 Americans convicted of crimes for the attack on the seat. of US democracy.
Additionally, Trump has vowed to seek revenge by ousting officials at the U.S. Department of Justice, which is prosecuting him on a four-count indictment for overturning the election before the Jan. 6 attack and another case over the storage of classified documents in his Mar- A. -Leave home.
Republicans, especially in the House but increasingly in the Senate, are vigorously following his example, complaining about an unfair judicial system. The House voted to convict Attorney General Merrick Garland of contempt of Congress and is re-investigating the House committee that investigated on January 6.
Alongside Trump, the Republican Party’s campaign arms in the House and Senate have had some of their highest fundraising periods yet, after a jury found him guilty in the New York silence case.
When former Republican Party Chairman Paul Ryan on Fox News this week reiterated that he would not vote for Trump and would like Republicans to have another choice for president, he was immediately ostracized by Trump’s allies.
“Paul Ryan, you are a piece of trash,” said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas.
Of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on January 6 and convict him on charges of inciting insurrection, only a few remain in office.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, are not expected to attend Thursday’s closed-door session with Trump.
But Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, said he would likely attend Trump’s meeting at the Republican senators’ campaign headquarters, hoping that “he’s going to be the next president, so you’re going to have to work” together.
Asked if he was worried about the direction of Trump’s Republican Party, Cassidy: “May the problems of the day be enough for the day. You may be anxious about tomorrow, but will it change anything? No.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who at times confronted Trump but did not participate in the vote to convict him for the Capitol attack, said he did not expect the meeting to be contentious as Republicans hope to win a majority in the Senate this fall. .
“Look, we have to win. And our ability to win a majority in the Senate is inextricably linked to Trump’s victory. So we are one team, one vision. And I think that’s mainly what we’ll talk about,” Tillis said.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Farnoush Amiri and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
