Trump will meet with Republicans in Congress to discuss GOP priorities for 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will meet with Republican lawmakers Thursday to discuss campaign strategies and lay out their wish lists if they beat Democrats in November.

It’s the first time Trump has returned to the Capitol since he left office nearly four years ago, and the trip offers an opportunity for conservative leaders to determine what policy priorities they will pursue if they are re-elected.

The meetings with House and Senate lawmakers also align with a meeting with the Business Roundtable, a powerful cohort of some of the nation’s largest companies that will host the former president during his stay in the nation’s capital. Trump is expected to meet with House Republican lawmakers in the morning at the Capitol Hill Club and with Senate Republicans in the afternoon at the National Republican Senatorial Committee office, both adjacent to the Capitol grounds.

The visit comes after Trump was convicted by a New York jury in his secret trial and weeks before his official nomination at the Republican National Convention. The two meetings with congressional Republicans are expected to help solidify the unity of the party which has at times struggled to agree on major policy priorities, such as additional aid to Ukraine.

However, some moderate members are expected to skip the meeting, such as Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah. Several of their peers insisted that this was not necessarily a problem.

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“I think there are a lot of reasons why people don’t show up,” including scheduling conflicts, said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “This is a great opportunity for all of us to come together to launch the official campaign but also to prepare, possibly, for a transition.”

Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to meet for first time in years as GOP leaders gather

Top congressional Republicans are expected to attend the meetings on Thursday. That includes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has not met in person with the former president since 2020. The two had a frosty relationship after McConnell accepted the results of the presidential election of 2020 and blamed it on January 6. , 2021, Capitol attack on Trump.

McConnell declined to say whether he would bring up animosity with the former president during the Senate meeting, reiterating that he intends to support the 2024 GOP nominee, whoever that may be. However, the Kentucky Republican refused to even refer to Trump by name.

“I said earlier this year that I supported him. He won the nomination from voters across the country and of course I will be at the meeting tomorrow,” McConnell told reporters.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, is a staunch Trump ally, having served on the former president’s defense team during his first impeachment trial. The speaker told reporters Wednesday morning that he wanted to use the meetings to present a clear conservative agenda if the Republican Party wins the next election.

“When (Trump) comes, we will have to have a very aggressive agenda for the first 100 days. The first year will be important and I think we can’t waste a moment,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Trump’s visit is also important for Johnson’s leadership post. The former president defended Georgia President Marjorie Taylor Greene’s threat to oust him last month. At the same time, Trump has at times put a damper on Johnson’s legislative agenda, including briefly derailing his plans for a controversial espionage law in April.

Trump’s four sets of criminal charges could also shape the Republican Party’s legislative agenda this year. A number of Republicans are supporting a bill led by Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., that would allow presidents and vice presidents to transfer state civil and criminal cases to federal court. Johnson said he supports the proposal, but a number of Republican lawmakers are skeptical of the legislation. In addition to his New York hush money affair, Trump also faces state-level charges in Georgia over allegations he tried to steal from the state in the 2020 presidential election.

The meetings may also serve another purpose: to give Trump a face-to-face meeting with many of the people he considers his running mates. This includes Senators JD Vance, R-Ohio, Tim Scott, R-S.C. and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as well as House members such as Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. and Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y., told reporters he expects to hear Trump give a “layout as he sees it” of the 2024 election. Other lawmakers told USA TODAY that they expected the meeting to be critical to establishing a working relationship between congressional Republicans and the former president if the Republican Party took full control of Washington, reclaimed the White House and the Senate and retained control of the House. That kind of sweep would be an uphill battle for either side.

“We are working now to cement that relationship, so that when January 20 comes, we will have a plan in place to work together with the White House and Congress,” Texas Republican Rep. Mark Alford said, noting a big part of the Republican Party platform renews the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which expire in 2025.

“That’s the main thing we need to make sure: that we communicate for the next few months and that we have a plan for January,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. As for what’s on the table? “You name it.” All the bullshit we had to put up with for four years.

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Johnson also met with Senate Republicans over lunch Wednesday to begin discussions on a possible party line package to pass next year.

Johnson told reporters after the meeting that he had expressed interest in further tax and spending cuts. Tax cuts passed under the Trump administration are set to expire in 2025, meaning the next president will have a significant opportunity to rewrite the nation’s tax code.

“I think we are now in the education phase” of teaching members what can and cannot be accomplished using the unique legislative tool known as “reconciliation,” said Sen. Thom Tillis , RN.C. Reconciliation can bypass the 60-vote threshold set by the Senate for certain budget laws.