Former President Donald J. Trump returned to the Capitol on Thursday for two celebratory meetings with Republican lawmakers, more than three years after violent mobs of his supporters took control of the House and Senate as they pushed to overturn the 2020 election. .
There was no mention of that dark day, January 6, 2021, when President Trump received a hero’s welcome in the nation’s capital. In two separate sessions, just blocks from where violence swept through the Capitol in his name, Republicans in the House and Senate welcomed their party’s nominee, smiled with him, clasped his hands, sang happy birthday and gave him cake. I gave it as a gift and swore I would use it. The power of Congress to thwart those who investigate and prosecute him.
Criticism of President Trump’s actions immediately after the violence and a pledge to resign him as party leader have long since disappeared. All Republicans who dared to speak out against him, such as former congressmen Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, have long been expelled from Congress.
Senator Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), the Republican leader who harshly criticized President Trump after the January 6 terrorist attacks and claimed that he was responsible for the violence, also attended the event, where he was seen bumping fists and shaking hands with the former president on Thursday. According to lawmakers.
In the warm embrace of the Republican firmament, Mr. Trump was transformed from hero to victim during his visit. He has been charged in three other criminal cases, including efforts to subvert the 2020 election and handling confidential documents, and was convicted in a fourth of falsifying business records.
According to attendees, President Trump screamed privately at law enforcement officers in the shadow of the Capitol. House Republicans came out of the meeting pledging to fight harder to protect him from the various prosecutors pursuing him. They promised to cut funding for law enforcement agencies that issue subpoenas and investigate President Trump.
“The House has an important role to play in harnessing the power of the subpoena, the power of the wallet,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and Trump ally. “I don’t think we’ve done that rigorously enough without President Trump leading us here in Washington. He will be a leader in that effort in the coming months.”
Speaker Mike Johnson called for passage of legislation that would allow the president to move state-level prosecutions to federal court, a move that would significantly weaken the power of local prosecutors to pursue the president.
“He didn’t mention any specific legislation,” Johnson said of President Trump. “He shared his concerns about lawsuits being filed against him.”
There were signs of resistance.
A small group of protesters greeted the former president Thursday morning as he arrived at a club a block from the Capitol to meet with House Republicans, holding signs that read “Failed Coup.”
The Biden campaign used the moment to release a new ad called “Burn” reminding Americans of President Trump’s role in galvanizing crowds on Jan. 6 before the attack.
“Nothing is more sacred than our democracy. But Donald Trump is ready to set everything on fire,” the ad said.
But inside the Capitol Hill club, the meeting felt like a Trump campaign rally. The former president came up with novel policy ideas, insulted his enemies, and praised those who praised him. At several points, Trump lamented that music star Taylor Swift would support President Biden, according to several people in the room. In July, he railed against the crime rate in the city of Milwaukee, where the Republican National Convention will be held. And he falsely claimed that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter once told him that he and her mother might have been good romantic matches despite their age gap.
“It has to be a traditional Trump,” said Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett. “He stopped following the script and started pointing out people in the crowd.”
House Republicans gave President Trump a baseball bat from their victory over Democrats in a congressional baseball game the night before, and Burchett said the bat was meant to show Trump that his allies on Capitol Hill can give him a victory. He said it would be.
“He’s the leader of our party, and the Republican Party destroyed the Democratic Party,” Mr. Burchett said, referring to the Republican Party’s 31-11 victory in the annual charity baseball game. “Just like you should on Election Day.”
Republican senators later presented President Trump with a birthday cake with vanilla icing and an American flag, along with a ’45’ candle. This was intended to refer to his status as the 45th president, although he is about 30 years younger than Trump.
Then, Senator John Barrasso, the third-ranking Republican who hosted the meeting, lit a ’47’ candle on the other side, as if trying to elect himself as the 47th president a few months before the November vote.
Mr. Barrasso later said: “He loved it.
It was all a festival of love. During a visit to House Republicans, Trump asked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who tried unsuccessfully to oust Johnson from office, to be kinder to the speaker.
Asked why Trump returned to the Capitol for the first time since the Jan. 6 riot, Ms. Greene complained that the former president had been treated “grossly unfairly” by the Justice Department and the media.
She said Trump focused some of his remarks on policy and told Republicans he “likes raising tariffs and potentially cutting income taxes on Americans to zero.”
“Everyone in the room was clapping,” Mr. Greene said. “He said, ‘If you’re going to go vote on something today, vote to lower taxes on Americans.’”
Trump later told business leaders in a separate meeting that he wanted to lower the corporate tax rate to 20%, as he attempted to do when he was president, but the sweeping tax cuts he signed into law set the corporate tax rate at 21%. percent.
And he preached a unifying message that the party was united after a tough primary.
“He said: ‘There will be some of you who may not like me because I am supporting the other side. But I will be running a teletown hall for many of you and help you get over the line. ‘It’s going to take whatever it takes to win the House and win big,’ Ms. Greene said.
President Trump’s meeting with lawmakers was the starkest example yet of how the Republican establishment, which had distanced itself from the former president after Jan. 6, has come to terms with his prospects for a second term. Establishment Republicans, who for years had hoped that someone else would lead their party, have completely submitted to the reality that Mr. Trump controls it.
In between meetings with House and Senate Republicans, President Trump spoke with the Business Council, a mainstream business group whose members include Apple’s Tim Cook and JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon. Visited dozens of top executives from the Business Roundtable.
In a subsequent meeting with Senate Republicans, Trump met with McConnell for the first time since the two last spoke in December 2020. McConnell cut off contact with President Trump after he refused to concede the election results to President Biden. University certificate for his victory.
Shortly after January 6, McConnell delivered a fiery speech on the Senate floor condemning Trump’s actions, but he did not vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial. The acquittal by Mr. McConnell and other Senate Republicans proved fateful, ultimately enabling Mr. Trump’s comeback. A conviction could have resulted in his being stripped of his position.
During Thursday’s meeting, Trump took pains to praise McConnell’s fist-clasping hands.
“He praised Mitch twice,” recalled North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer. “He mentioned Mitch and his work on behalf of the Republican Senate on two occasions. To say the least, they were very friendly. Even with Donald Trump, it was very Senate.”
Carl Hulse, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman contributed to the report.
