Inside Trumpâs gripe-filled meeting with House GOP and his reunion with McConnell
Former President Donald Trump led House Republicans through a gripe-filled closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday, airing grievances about his legal and electoral challenges, attacking his critics in the room, and only briefly addressing policy matters like abortion and taxes, according to multiple GOP lawmakers in the room.
In his first time returning to the Capitol campus area since leaving office after the January 6, 2021, riot, the former president met with lawmakers for over an hour.
In between rants about Taylor Swift and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Trump went after his detractors â those who have since lost their seats and some who were in the room â as he warned Republicans to not be afraid of the hot button issue of abortion.
In a sign that the former president is reveling in how the party has fallen in line behind him, Trump bragged that most of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him were no longer in office and singled out one of the remaining two GOP lawmakers left: GOP Rep. David Valadao of California.
âI never loved him,â Trump said of Valadao, according to a GOP member.
As a number of House Republicans find themselves in competitive primary races, the former president said he wanted to do tele-town halls, but acknowledged his help would not be welcomed by some, given that he had endorsed their primary opponents.
Trump did not shy away from acknowledging the bad blood between House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who unsuccessfully tried to oust Johnson against Trumpâs wishes. The former president playfully asked Greene, a staunch ally of his who he strongly supports, to be nice to the speaker.
âHeâs always so sweet, recognizing me, and he said âare you being nice to Speaker Johnson?â He was joking. And I said âeh,ââ as she gestured with her hands. âHe said âOK be nice to himâ and I nodded my head,â she added.
Johnson, after the meeting, said the former president told him that he was doing âa very good jobâ and that he plans to be âfully preparedâ to implement Trumpâs plans if he wins in November.
The former presidentâs conviction also hung heavy over Thursdayâs meeting.
Trumpâs allies on Capitol Hill immediately sprung into action following the guilty verdict âproposing to defund the Department of Justice and even shut down the government. House Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress on Wednesday. And one legislative proposal Republican leaders are now actively pursuing is a bill that would allow current and former presidents to move state-level cases to federal court. The legislation passed out of committee last September, but GOP leaders only started formally whipping the bill this week â on the eve of Trumpâs Capitol Hill visit and two weeks after his conviction.
In his meeting with GOP lawmakers, Trump called the Department of Justice âdirty no good bastards,â according to another source in the room.
GOP Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma said the former president expressed he was âgravely concernedâ about the federal government being weaponized.
In a news conference after the meeting, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said that the former presidentâs felony convictions have only energized the party that will propel them to victory in November.
âAnybody who thought that this President was going to be down after the sham trial, after that crooked trial that we saw in New York, I think, again, itâs only given him even more energy,â Emmer said. âAnd what he did for us upstairs just now is, he showed us that energy and he showed us that positive outlook, despite all the garbage theyâve been throwing at him with their lawfare and their nonsense.â