President Donald Trump lunched with Senate Republicans after he spent the morning feuding with GOP Sen. Bob Corker, but declined to insult the senator he earlier mocked as ‘liddle’ to his face.
Senators who attended the closed sessions said the president was in good humor and spoke about shared goals like corporate tax cuts.
They say he didn’t even mention Corker, who was there, or so much as make a joke at his expense.
Republicans say President Donald Trump didn’t even mention Sen. Bob Corker at a Senate GOP luncheon Tuesday
Neither man spoke to reporters when they left. Aides didn’t set up the customary podium where Senate leaders speak until after the president had left the building, denying him an inviding platform.
‘I would say the attitude was very positive, and he had meatloaf,’ said GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.
He added: ‘‘He spent most of his time talking about the importance of tax reform. And we talked about he importance of his nominations as well. But it was cordial. He was very well received. He was funny. People laughed with him. And we had meatloaf, did I mention that?’
President Trump (right) was greeted by Russian flags and called out for ‘treason!’ by a protester as he entered the Senate policy luncheon alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (left)
In an unusual display of power sharing, Trump asked the senators for a show of hands on who he should select to lead the Federal Reserve, Fed Governor Jerome Powell or Stanford economist John Taylor.
‘I said they’re both good,’ said Sen. Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama.
Senators did all they could to talk about things besides the Corker feud on the way into work Tuesday.
‘The little spats you may see between the White House and members will not have impact on how we focus on the priorities of the country,’ said GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.’
Majority Leader MItch McConnell said the lawmakers spoke about the budget, taxes, judicial nominees, and the opioid epidemic.
The table was already set for an awkward luncheon.
Trump started his day by reigniting a war with Corker after Corker criticized the president on the Today show and said even more damning things on CNN, after Trump started going after Corker on Twitter.
Then, as the president arrived on Capitol Hill, walking through a corridor packed with reporters alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a protester started screaming at the president, throwing a flurry of Trump logo-emblazoned Russian flags at him.
Corker said he planned to be at the luncheon and followed up on the word, as DailyMail.com spotted the retiring Tennessee get into an elevator and head toward the room.
On CNN today, Corker answered ‘no, no way,’ when asked if he’d support Trump again.
Corker said the president ‘debases our country’ by constantly telling ‘untruths.’
Protester Ryan Clayton is removed from the Capitol Building Tuesday after screaming at President Trump when he arrived for the weekly Senate policy luncheon
Protester Ryan Clayton successfully infiltrated the press and was able to heckle President Trump to his face as the POTUS arrived on Capitol Hill
President Trump gives a thumbs up despite being yelled at by a protester and peppered with Trump logo-emblazoned Russian flags
President Trump (right) arrives at the Senate policy luncheon alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Trump was heckled by a protester as he walked in
President Trump waves at the hundreds of journalists gathered on Capitol Hill to document his arrival Tuesday
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (left) walks alongside President Trump (right) as the GOP president arrives at his party’s policy luncheon, on the same day the president renewed a feud with Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee
Corker also said he regrets supporting Trump and that the president has proved himself ‘unable to rise to the occasion.’
Putting the best face on the spat, Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday: ‘I’m glad the president’s coming to lunch because I have long believed that it’s best to settle these things in person and I hope they can get the chance to do that.’
Also attending will be North Carolina Richard Burr, who is in the midst of a probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
‘I go to a policy lunch every week,’ Burr told the Hill. ‘I’m going to be in a body of colleagues. I don’t think it’s improper to go to a regularly scheduled lunch.’
Also expected is Sen. John McCain, who in a recent documentary blasted people who got out of Vietnam with a ‘bone spur.’ (Trump got medical deferments that referenced his bone spurs and avoided service.)
Seated nearby will be Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who harshly criticized his own party in his recent book. ‘Never has a party so quickly or so easily abandoned its principles as my party did during the 2016 campaign,’ he wrote.
Trump’s former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has already publicly backed Flake’s primary opponent.
‘The debasement of our nation will be what he’ll remembered most for and that’s regretful,’ Sen Bob Corker said in an interview on CNN
Trump has golfed with occasional rivals Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul, but still finds himself getting in feud after feud with rivals from his own party.
Trump hopes to work with the same Republicans he has clashed with in order to overhaul the tax code.
It will be Trump’s first appearance as president at Senate Republicans’ regular Tuesday policy lunch at the Capitol.
McConnell and Trump had a joint news conference last week to announce they had smoothed things over and underscore their common focus on taxes.
But Trump’s comments at that event spawned the controversy over his treatment of fallen U.S. troops, underscoring how the president’s lack of discipline repeatedly takes the White House off-message, a continuing frustration for members of Congress.
Trump has said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell couldn’t ‘get it done’ on health care
Nonetheless, Republicans and the Trump administration are determined to get tax legislation into law this year, and all sides seem to think they can unite around that goal.
Corker told NBC’s Today on Tuesday that he hopes the White House will ‘step aside’ and give the House and Senate tax-writing committees room to figure out how to pay for the tax cuts.
Corker, who has publicly criticized the president’s job performance, suggested that recent decisions by the White House have been unhelpful.
In a tweet on Monday, Trump ruled out changes to popular 401(k) retirement plans to help pay for the tax cuts.
Asked whether his recommendation to the president would be to leave well enough alone, Corker said: ‘I would recommend that, based on recent history and just interactions. And I think that’s the best way for us to have success.’
Republican Arizona Senator John McCain has clashed with Trump and brought up his Vietnam War deferments
No. 3 Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota said he hopes to hear Trump ‘drive home the message that he wants to be a partner, a constructive partner that helps us get accomplishments that help everybody.’
‘If you have people who are running for re-election next year, whether it’s a House member or one of the senators who’s up this year, I think the best thing you can go back and talk about is that you got results,’ Thune added. ‘And I think that to the degree the president delivers that message it will be very well received by Republican senators.’
Corker, who is retiring, recently suggested that Trump’s undisciplined rhetoric about international affairs could lead to World War III, leading an angry Trump to dismiss him as ‘Liddle Bob Corker.’
The tax plan crafted by Trump and Republican leaders calls for steep tax cuts for corporations and potentially for individuals. It would double the standard deduction used by most Americans, shrink the number of tax brackets from seven to three or four, and repeal inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates.
But crucial details of the plan have yet to be worked out, notably what income levels would fit with each tax bracket.