Emboldened Trump returns to Capitol Hill for first time since Jan. 6 attack
CTV
Donald Trump is making a triumphant return to Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate Republicans, his first since sending the mob to 'fight like hell' ahead of the Jan.6, 2021 attack, as GOP lawmakers find themselves newly energized and reinvigorated by his bid to retake the White House.
Donald Trump is making a triumphant return to Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate Republicans, his first since sending the mob to “fight like hell” ahead of the Jan.6, 2021 attack, as GOP lawmakers find themselves newly energized and reinvigorated by his bid to retake the White House.
Despite the federal charges against Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, and his recent guilty verdict in an unrelated hush money trial, the Republican former president arrives Thursday emboldened as the party's presumptive nominee. He has successfully purged the GOP of critics, silenced most skeptics and enticed once-critical lawmakers aboard his MAGA-fuelled campaign.
“We’re excited to welcome President Trump back,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, who led one of the lawsuits challenging the 2020 election, and had his biggest fundraising day yet after Trump's felony conviction.
The Republican speaker demurred over whether he’s asked Trump to respect the peaceful transfer of presidential power and commit to not doing another Jan. 6. “Of course he respects that, we all do, and we've all talked about it, ad nauseum.”
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks to both groups at the House and Senate campaign headquarters near the U.S. Capitol and discuss issues animating his campaign — including mass immigration deportations but also tax cuts and other priorities for a potential second term.
In between, Trump is expected to speak at the Business Roundtable downtown, which routinely invites the presumptive presidential nominees to address the executives' group. Many potential priorities for a new White House administration are being formulated by a constellation of outside groups, including Project 2025, that are laying the groundwork for executive and legislative actions, though Trump has made clear he has his own agenda.
But the private meetings with House and Senate Republicans so close to the Capitol are infused with symbolism of Trump’s return as the U.S. president who threatened the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
