Trump’s feuds with GOP critics eclipse Senate tax-cut talks
With few pledges, Capitol Hill strategy talks don’t distract
President Trump met behind closed doors with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday amid the GOP’s high-stakes push for tax reform — a session that was overshadowed by the president’s escalating war of words with a GOP senator who could decide the fate of that legislative priority.
This was Trump’s first visit as president to the Senate Republicans’ weekly policy lunch, and it comes as House Republicans are scrambling to pass a sweeping budget agreement that would allow Congress to fast-track a taxcut package. GOP leaders had high hopes for the huddle, believing Trump could help energize and unify Republicans on the tax reform front as they seek a major legislative accomplishment before the end of the year.
But the president only talked about tax reform in broad strokes, offering no detailed positions, Republican lawmakers said after the meeting. And instead of unity, Trump sparked new tensions as, just hours before his Senate visit, he engaged in a fresh fight with Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has criticized the president as an unstable and erratic leader.
In a series of tweets Tuesday morning, Trump blasted Corker as a “lightweight” who “couldn’t get elected dog catcher.” Corker quickly shot back, calling Trump “utterly untruthful.”
Earlier in the day, Corker gave a series of interviews in which he accused Trump of “debasing ” the country with false statements and “attempted bullying.” Corker’s broadside was followed later in the day by a salvo from Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who announced he
“Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused as telling it like it is, when it is actually reckless, outrageous and undignified.”
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.
was retiring and blasted Trump, though not by name, in a speech on the Senate floor.
“Reckless, outrageous and undignified behavior has become excused as telling it like it is,” Flake said, “when it is actually reckless, outrageous and undignified.”
Trump did not respond to questions from reporters as he left the Capitol. But senators said the president’s feud with Corker did not come up at the lunch, and Corker said he did not speak with Trump during the meeting.
“There were no fireworks,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “It was a positive and productive conversation all around.”
Other lawmakers offered a similarly rosy readout and said no one brought up Trump’s Twitter habits, or his attacks on some of those in the room. In addition to Corker, Trump has also publicly criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and several other GOP senators.
“We gave him three standing ovations,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. Trump was “very complimentary” of McConnell, Kennedy said, “and he went around and shook hands with people individually.”
McConnell downplayed the hostilities and insisted it would not distract Republicans from their tax reform push.
“If there’s anything that unifies Republicans, it’s tax reform,” McConnell said. Trump and Senate Republicans “share that agenda,” he said, and the president “is going to do a good job” promoting the GOP tax plan.
There’s “a lot of noise out there,” McConnell added, “but there’s great cohesion among Republicans to achieve this goal before the end of the year.”