Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump: A chance to achieve great change
President speaks to GOP retreat, offers few details on his agenda
PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump called on fellow Republicans to help him enact “great and lasting change” during a party retreat Thursday, but offered the lawmakers few details about his views on key issues including tax reform and health care.
The president was greeted by cheers as he took the stage in a Philadelphia hotel ballroom, telling senators and House members, “This Congress is going to be the busiest Congress in decades — maybe ever.”
“Think of everything we can achieve and who we can achieve it for,” he said. “This is our chance to achieve great and lasting change for our beloved nation.”
The president spoke about his agenda in broad terms and then skipped a planned question-and-answer session. He gave Republicans no specific marching orders for tackling the repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act.
On her first visit to the United States as British prime minister, Theresa May also addressed the Republican gathering. She embraced Trump as a friend and ally, but cautioned him not to turn his back on global institutions and long-established political values.
She said that a Britain outside the EU and the U.S. under Trump can “lead together again” in the world, as they did when they set up the United Nations, NATO and other international organizations the new president has strongly criticized.
May declared sympathy for Trump’s world view, then reminded the gathered Republicans — and by extension the president — of the United States’ international obligations.
May flew to Philadelphia a day before she will hold talks with Trump at the White House and become the first foreign leader to meet him since his inauguration.
After returning to the White House, Trump had been expected to sign an executive action Thursday commissioning a probe of what he has claimed was widespread voter fraud in the November election.
But Spicer said that had been postponed. Spicer did not provide more details as to what the order might entail. Additional actions are planned for Friday, too, but Spicer said decisions were still to be made on what Trump would sign.
Trump had announced in a pair of tweets early Wednesday that a “major investigation” will look at those registered to vote in more than one state, “those who are illegal and even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time).” Depending on results, the Republican tweeted on his sixth day in office, “we will strengthen up voting procedures!”
He went further later, claiming: “You have people registered in two states. They’re registered in a New York and a New Jersey. They vote twice.”
“There are millions of votes, in my opinion,” Trump told ABC. “Of those votes cast, none of them come to me. None of them come to me.”
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and one of his closest White House advisers, is registered to vote in both New Jersey and New York, while Spicer is on the rolls in Virginia and his home state of Rhode Island, according to elections officials and voting registration records.
Along with Kushner and Spicer, The Washington Post has now identified five Trump family members or top administration appointees who were registered in two states during the fall election. The others are chief White House strategist Steve Bannon; Tiffany Trump, the president’s youngest daughter; and Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, as first reported by CNN.
White House officials did not respond to requests for comment.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz on Thursday broke with Trump, saying his committee won’t investigate the president’s claims.
The Utah Republican says Trump is free to order the Justice Department to investigate the issue, but he’s not interested in launching a congressional inquiry. Chaffetz told reporters at the congressional Republican retreat in Philadelphia that voting happens at the local level, adding, “I don’t see any evidence” of widespread fraud.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have finalized their election results with no reports of the kind of widespread fraud that Trump alleges.