If Senate Majority Leader John Thune had asked Sen. Rick Scott “what’s on the menu?” for the Republican caucus’ lunch Wednesday, Scott’s response might have been “your majority.”
President Donald Trump invaded Senate Republicans’ lunch at Scott’s invitation — a solicitation extended without Thune’s prior knowledge. Trump’s visit came amid conflicting reports about negotiations with Iran, clear signs that Democratic enthusiasm continues to grow across the country, and Trump’s own decision to cancel a bipartisan bill signing for a new housing bill. Rather than deal with those issues, the president mostly continued his rampage against what he views as the true roadblock to his legislative agenda: Senate Republicans.
A simple math problem apparently remains an elusive point with the president.
The details of the private meeting sound less like a staid policy luncheon and more like the recent UFC fight at the White House. “Within minutes, he was in a shouting match,” MS NOW reported. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., never lacking for a turn of phrase, told reporters that Trump was “mad as a murder hornet.”
The president entered a back-and-forth with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., about the Iran war, with Cassidy reportedly yelling at the president. “I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy said afterward. “Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on.” Both men raised their voices further, with Cassidy calling the president “brother” and Trump taunting the senator about his recent primary loss.
As if that was not enough drama, the president even chided Sen. David McCormick for missing Tuesday’s vote on the Iran war powers resolution. Never mind that McCormick was absent from that symbolic vote because he was with Trump at a rally in the senator’s home state of Pennsylvania.
Yet Trump was not finished. He implored the senators to pass the SAVE America Act — a poorly written piece of legislation that would encroach on states’ constitutional right to hold elections and impose new requirements for voter registration and verification far beyond a valid driver’s license. But even setting aside its merits, the bill lacks 50 Republican votes, let alone the Democrats needed to reach 60 votes and pass the Senate. This simple math problem apparently remains an elusive point with the president.
Trump did try to leave the meeting on a positive note. After telling reporters that there were senators in the lunch that “I don’t like,” he did compliment Iran’s leaders for “being very nice” — though they don’t seem to see things the same way.
William S. Burroughs named his 1959 novel “Naked Lunch” for that “frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.” That mealtime clarity came to Capitol Hill Wednesday, and it brought a stark revelation: With Democrats gaining in opposition to the president, and as he faces sinking poll numbers, Trump is fighting the one thing he continues to have control over — the Republican Party.
When things get tough for Trump — a war, the economy, legislation and an election — he gives up.
Many MAGA voices seem far more excited about heckling Thune and his caucus for failing to pass the SAVE America Act than they are fearful that Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer will become majority leader. For the president and the MAGA base, why have one party beating up the Republicans when you can have both?
When things get tough for Americans, we see our family, friends and neighbors rise to the occasion. But when things get tough for Trump — a war, the economy, legislation and an election — he gives up. He walks away. He will get mad at everyone in his line of sight, but to find the real problems, he need only look in a mirror.
The post Trump met the Senate GOP — and gave them a moment of terrible clarity appeared first on MS NOW.
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