The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump reaches out to former GOP rivals
Harsh campaign tone set aside in bid to pass agenda.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, whose rough treatment of critics and rivals has been a hallmark of his brash style, has begun reaching out to some whose help he now needs.
The latest on his list is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has said he has significant concerns about the health care bill Trump wants Congress to pass.
The president and first lady hosted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, and their two daughters for dinner Wednesday night — a day after Trump had lunch with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, another onetime challenger for the Republican presidential nomination.
“It was terrific. It was a social evening we had a very nice evening with the president and the first lady with Heidi and the girls,” Cruz said.
He tweeted a photo of his daughters standing next to the president in the Oval Office, and put out this caption: “Our family had dinner w the President & First Lady, who were warm & gracious. Catherine brought Joe — her kindergarten class stuffed giraffe!”
Trump gave Florida Sen. Marco Rubio an Air Force One ride to his home state last week and invited Rubio and his wife for dinner at the White House. Trump met recently with Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich, had another Republican governor, Chris Christie of New Jersey., and his wife over for Valentine’s Day meatloaf, and had a working lunch with Gov. Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s Republican leader.
Like Cruz and Graham, all had competed with Trump for the presidential nomination.
Trump will need every possible ally to sell his legislative agenda, especially on repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. That helps explain his wooing of ex-rivals such as Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, whom Trump has spoken to several times since taking office, said Paul’s spokesman Sergio Gor.
But the 2016 GOP campaign was harsh, and that has led to some awkward interactions.
As a candidate, Trump gave Cruz the nickname ‘Lyin’ Ted,’ questioned the senator’s faith and suggested Cruz’s father may have been involved in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Trump also went after Cruz’s wife.
Cruz responded by calling Trump “a sniveling coward,” a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.” Cruz declined to endorse Trump in his Republican Convention speech.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday the president enjoyed welcoming the Cruzes to the White House.
“They had a very enjoyable time and a very fruitful discussion,” Spicer said, adding that it was something the president “is going to continue to do with members of both parties, both chambers, and not just here in Washington.”
Trump has in the past marveled at politicians’ abilities to move on, even after brutal election campaigns.
“It’s a very strange phenomenon,” he recently told Fox News, describing his ability to get along with former President Barack Obama, despite their testy rivalry as Obama campaigned on behalf of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“What amazed me is that I was vicious to him in statements, he was vicious to me in statements, and here we are getting along, we’re riding up Pennsylvania Avenue, talk — we don’t even mention it,” he said. “I guess that’s the world of politics.”
Even Graham, one of Trump’s fiercest critics during the primary, seems to agree with the idea of moving past the campaign rhetoric. After their lunch, he praised Trump, saying he was “strongly committed to rebuilding our military, which is music to my ears. President Trump is in deal-making mode and I hope Congress is likeminded.”