Presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump took a break from the campaign trail on Thursday to meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill for a roughly hour-long conversation that attendees characterized afterward as issues-focused and intended to unify the conference on strategy a few months out from Election Day. The meeting took place at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) headquarters, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
According to Senate Republicans who attended Thursday’s meeting, Trump touched on a range of issues, including securing the southern border, tapping American energy potential, reining in inflation, strengthening national defense, and unifying behind a federalist approach to abortion after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Not as much policy discussion but just general path forward,” Iowa senator Joni Ernst told reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday afternoon after leaving a floor vote, adding that the meeting, organized by Senate GOP Conference chairman John Barrasso, was “unifying.”
One issue the presumptive nominee spent significant time talking about is his new idea to exempt tips from taxes, a proposal that Senate Republicans’ 2024 campaign chief Steve Daines tells National Review is “really resonating” on the trail.
Trump first tested the idea at a campaign rally over the weekend in Nevada, a blue-leaning battleground with a large hospitality industry and a unionized worker population.
“It makes a lot of sense to a lot of us, because how do you keep track of who’s getting cash tips versus on card?” South Dakota senator Mike Rounds told reporters in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, characterizing the proposal as beneficial to working-class Americans. “If there was something we could do to really energize that particular segment of the population, that might be a real popular thing to do and a positive one in terms of the economy.”
Also present during Thursday’s Senate GOP meeting was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who hadn’t spoken with Trump since December 2020, and described the meeting to reporters as “positive.”
Trump’s meeting with Senate Republicans came a few hours after the former president had convened with House Republicans for a separate, wide-ranging discussion at the Capitol Hill Club, where members presented him with a bat they won at last night’s congressional baseball game and treated him to a “happy birthday” chorus one day before the former president turns 78. (Senate Republicans gave him a birthday cake later in the day.)