President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Capitol Hill this week in order to meet with the Senate Republicans.
According to The Hill, Trump is set to attend the closed-door caucus lunch on Tuesday, the first time in months that he’s attended the Senate GOP lunch.
Republican Senator John Barrasso, who is the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, said lawmakers will discuss the economy with Trump, as well as recent developments in North Korea.
“Our conference looks forward to discussing the key accomplishments of tax cuts and historic economic growth here at home, and the opportunity for peace on the Korean Peninsula that lies ahead,” he said in a statement.
However, Trump’s relationship with the Senate GOP caucus has not been a smooth ride.
In 2016 at Trump’s first meeting with the GOP caucus things went out of control when the president got into a heated discussion with GOP Senator Jeff Flake while criticizing Republican Senator Ben Sasse and then Senator Mark Kirk.
Also when Trump attended another caucus lunch in October 2017, a protester threw Russian flags at the president and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as they entered the lunch in a move that ultimately resulted in new restrictions on press access in the Capitol.
The president described the meeting as “a love fest with standing ovations and great ideas for USA!”
After that October lunch, Flake, who has been a frequent critic of Trump, announced that he was retiring at the end of his current term.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen GOP senators sent a letter to McConnell late last week urging him to cancel the month-long recess or keep the Senate in for longer work weeks to avoid passing another mammoth omnibus funding bill.
“We stand ready to work Mondays and Fridays, nights as well as weekends, to ensure the funding process is not used to jam the president with a bad spending deal,” they wrote in the letter.
Trump over the weekend once again demanded that any government funding bill include money for border security and the controversial U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“The Senate should get funding done before the August break, or NOT GO HOME,” Trump tweeted. “Wall and Border Security should be included. Also waiting for approval of almost 300 nominations, worst in history. Democrats are doing everything possible to obstruct, all they know how to do. STAY!
Be the first to comment