CNN
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Former President Donald Trump led House Republicans in a frustrated closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday, airing frustrations about his legal and election challenges, attacking critics in the chamber and only briefings on policy issues like abortion and taxes, according to several Republicans in the chamber.
Returning to the Capitol grounds for the first time since leaving office following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, the former president met with lawmakers for more than an hour.
In between rants about Taylor Swift and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Trump attacked those who have already lost their seats, as well as some of his critics in the room, and warned Republicans not to shy away from the important issue of abortion.
In a sign that the former president was pleased to have his party get his way, Trump bragged that most of the 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment are now out of office, and specifically criticized one of the two remaining Republicans, Rep. David Valadao of California.
“I never loved him,” Trump said of Valadao, according to the Republican lawmaker.
With many House Republicans facing tough primary elections, the former president said he wanted to do a televised town hall meeting, but acknowledged it would be unwelcome from some lawmakers because he supported an opponent in the primary.
Trump freely acknowledged the feud between House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who unsuccessfully tried to oust Johnson against Trump’s wishes, and jokingly asked Greene, a staunch supporter of Trump’s, to go easy on the speaker.
“He’s always been really nice, and he recognized me and asked me, ‘Are you nice to Speaker Johnson?’ I was just joking. I said, ‘Huh?'” she gestured. “He said, ‘Okay, be nice,’ and I nodded,” she added.
After the meeting, Johnson said Trump was “doing a very good job” and that he would be “fully prepared” to implement Trump’s plans if he won the presidential election in November.
The former president’s conviction also weighed heavily on Thursday’s meeting.
Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill have proposed taking immediate action following a conviction, slashing the Justice Department budget and even shutting down the government. House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress. And one legislative proposal Republican leaders are now actively pushing is a bill to allow current and former presidents to move state-level lawsuits to federal court. The bill passed committee last September, but Republican leaders only began formally debating the measure this week, on the eve of Trump’s visit to the Capitol and two weeks after his conviction.
During the meeting with Republican lawmakers, Trump called the Justice Department a “filthy, nasty bunch of bastards,” according to another source at the event.
Republican Rep. Kevin Hahn of Oklahoma said the former president expressed “serious concerns” about the weaponization of the federal government.
At a press conference after the meeting, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said the former president’s felony conviction would energize the party and lead it to victory in November’s election.
“Anyone who thought the president was going to be depressed after that sham trial, that rigged trial that we saw in New York, I think, again, it’s just given him more energy,” Emmer said. “And what he’s done for us up there now is shown us that energy and positive outlook despite all the garbage they’ve been throwing at him with the legal wars and nonsense.”
Trump sent a direct message to House Republicans about how to tackle abortion in November, an issue the GOP has struggled to unite around in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Johnson quoted Trump as telling the group, “Use your conscience to speak about this, share your beliefs, do it in a way that people can understand. And I think that was a good point.”
In a low voice, Mr. Trump advised Republicans not to be afraid of the issue, arguing that Democrats have taken an extreme position on it, according to people in the room. He called on Republicans to follow their beliefs but warned about how they would approach the issue in the campaign and urged them to make exceptions.
“He called for exceptions on rape, on the life of the mother, on incest, and he said how we should talk about it. His words, not mine, exactly,” Republican Rep. Nancy Mace told CNN. “As a woman, as a suburban mom, I really appreciated his comments.”
Trump also said Roe v. Wade ultimately gave the states the power to decide what they always wanted, but noted some states made “not very good” decisions.
“But like Ronald Reagan, you have three choices — be a mother, commit rape or commit incest — and you’ve got to follow your heart,” Trump said, according to a source at the event.
Trump’s message came shortly after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to regulate the abortion drug mifepristone, ruling that would allow mifepristone to continue to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor’s appointment.
The former president also mentioned several other priorities, including repealing the tip tax, building on the southern border and a proposal to halt further aid to Ukraine, despite support from several lawmakers in his own party.
There were numerous instances where the former president strayed from the topic.
As Trump lashed out at crime rates and so-called election integrity issues, the former president called Milwaukee, where the Republican Party will hold its convention this summer, a “terrible” place, according to a source who was in the room with him.
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Derrick Van Alden, who was also in attendance, clarified to CNN that Trump was “specifically referring to crime in Milwaukee, not the city of Milwaukee itself.”
In a bizarre moment, Trump called Pelosi’s daughter a “freak” and later said she once said Trump and the former House speaker would have had a “great romance” in another life, according to lawmakers in the room.
In response to Trump’s comments, one of Pelosi’s daughters posted on X: “I speak for all four Pelosi daughters in saying this is a lie. His dishonest and unhealthy obsession with his mother is one of the reasons Donald Trump is unwell, mentally ill and unfit to ever set foot anywhere near his mother or the White House.”
He also questioned why pop star Taylor Swift is endorsing President Joe Biden and not him, whom he calls a “doofus.”
“Why would she support this idiot? He doesn’t know how to get off a stage,” Trump said, according to a member of the audience.
The former president even said of Hannibal Lecter that he was “a nice guy…he would even invite his friends over for dinner.”
At the start of the meeting, House Republicans sang happy birthday to the former president, whose birthday was on Friday, and presented him with a ball and bat from the congressional baseball game that Republicans won on Wednesday, people at the meeting said.
Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux
Former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as he arrives to meet with Republican senators at the Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters in Washington, June 13, 2024.
Hours later, President Trump met privately with Senate Republicans in what lawmakers said was a climate of unity.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose relationship with the former president has frostily deteriorated and who has not spoken to him in person since December 2020, shook Trump’s hand and said the meeting was positive.
“I can’t think of anything negative to say about it,” he said.
The former president sat between McConnell and South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who also had a rocky relationship with the former president.
“He was overwhelmingly elected by our voters, which shows that he is undoubtedly the leader of his party,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said of Trump. “I mean, the people who have been so vocally opposed to him are sitting right next to him in the room.”
Trump himself praised a “great meeting” with Senate Republicans and said there was “great unity” within the GOP.
Trump made it clear he would support Republicans in their races, telling the senators next to him: “You’re all going to get elected or reelected. I’m with all of you and you know that.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said the meeting was about “reuniting the team” and updating the former president’s campaign.
“I’m optimistic, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” Rubio said.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said the former president had “expressed his dissatisfaction” with the recent conviction.
“As you can imagine, Mr. Trump has expressed dissatisfaction with the recent trial, and I think that’s understandable,” said Cornyn, who noted that Mr. Trump had not brought up the Jan. 6 incident.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
