Donald Trump was at the Capitol on Wednesday. He met with Republican lawmakers on his way to a business roundtable, the real purpose of his visit.
It was more of a reunion than a substantive discussion for the former president, who was visiting Washington for the first time since leaving office. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was in attendance. The Senate Republican leader famously delivered the fiercest speech of his career against Trump after the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, and the two have reportedly not spoken since. Nothing beats a family reunion.
The Republican Party’s friendship with big business has been unrequited for decades, but with Trump, that relationship was nonexistent.
The unspoken tension didn’t end there.Absolutely. Republican leaders are eager to get Trump’s approval of a plan to pass a comprehensive spending bill this fall that would cover 2025. They’re pitching this as “setting the stage” for a future presidency, allowing Trump to get right to the business of governing without the hassle of messy negotiations.
Of course, it’s not that simple, because so much of the administration’s first year will be determined by this package, which gives Democrats the ability to plant traps and poison pills on every aspect of 2025 policy, from border security to foreign policy — the latter part that gets DC Republicans excited.
The fall omnibus budget means increased funding for Ukraine, dear to many Republicans. Congress has ceded much of its power to the executive branch over the past 40 years, but lawmakers are taking war funding seriously. If President Trump were to touch a hair on Ukraine’s head in the name of executive privilege to decide foreign policy, he would be trapped with impeachment.
President Trump should not be fooled by that, and some conservatives want to stop him from being fooled by it. These policymakers want a “clean” continuing resolution instead.
Republicans argue that they can push the deadline back to the winter of 2025 by completing tough negotiations on a massive spending package in the fall and keeping government funding (neither increased nor decreased) in the meantime.
The realities of appropriations are complicated and messy, and it’s unclear how many lawmakers really understand what they’re doing. As one Republican committee staffer told The Blaze News, “It’s like planning a wedding and a retirement at the same time.”
But Trump also wasn’t there to talk substantive policy. The real purpose of his visit was to meet with American business leaders to raise funds for his campaign to return to the White House.
Of course, Democrats were eager to block this. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a statement summarizing “insurrection,” “crime scene,” “Nazis,” “Confederate,” “death, injury, trauma,” “dictators,” “revenge,” “unconstitutional violations,” and “dismantling our democracy” in just six sentences. Joe Biden’s reelection campaign was slightly less dramatic, releasing an ad claiming that Trump wants to “burn everything down.”
But that didn’t stop some of America’s top executives from attending the conference, including (reportedly) the CEOs of Apple, Nasdaq, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, American Express, JPMorgan Chase, American Express and Bank of America.
Republicans’ friendship with big business has not been reciprocated for decades, but it never was for Trump. His previous comments about trade tariffs when he met with members of his party are likely to come up in conversation. Still, he seems somewhat weary of Biden and the Democratic antics.
“I wish Democrats would be a little more careful when they talk about MAGA,” JPMorgan Chase celebrity CEO Jamie Dimon told Davos attendees in January. “I want people to stop and think honestly for a second. Trump was right about some things on NATO. He was right about some things on immigration. Trump grew the economy pretty well. Tax reform worked. … I don’t like what he said about Mexico, but he wasn’t wrong on some of these important issues. That’s why people are voting for Trump.”
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In other news
Next steps for Senate opposition to Biden’s legal fight
Republican Sens. J.D. Vance (Ohio), Mike Lee (Utah), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Tommy Tuberville (Alabama) and Eric Schmitt (Missouri) signed a letter on Wednesday announcing their intention to block the early confirmation of the White House attorney general and attorney general nominees, as well as anyone who has supported Democrats’ legal fights or censorship through their donations, membership or affiliations with advocacy groups or public or social media statements.
Opposing expedited nominations is a major headache for the U.S. Senate, which maintains a roughly three-day workweek with mostly uncontested oral votes and unanimous consent. Any senator has the right to object if a colleague tries to get a “unanimous consent,” and if someone objects, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) must block two to 30 hours (depending on his position) of floor time to allow colleagues to speak on the nomination before the vote.
Schumer probably doesn’t want to do that, especially with so few days left on the Senate calendar. Judges are very important to him, so he’ll probably see some fanfare there, but his loyalists hoping to bolster their resumes with Senate-confirmed positions are probably out of luck.
Of course, this kind of thing requires commitment: Signatories have to be there to protest, and, like Tuberville, they have to be willing to accept criticism and flak from colleagues and the press. As with Lee’s broader but similar coalition, the more people who join, the more fun (and the more problems it can cause).
Fires Up: Autoweek: Why Ford’s multi-billion dollar renovation of Michigan Central Station is more than just a model refresh (Photos)
The world of architecture is rarely a source of good news. The professional class obsesses over ugliness, insisting that beauty is just too expensive, while we plebs tell them that if only we were more educated we would appreciate everything. Of course, this is completely wrong, and all around us we see beautiful buildings decaying, replaced by soulless glass and plastic.
The Ford Motor Company appears to be an exception to this sad reality, as Henry Ford’s great-grandson’s love of beauty, craftsmanship and hometown led him to undertake the incredible feat of restoring the 110-year-old Beaux-Arts Michigan Central Station this summer. Tom Murphy reports.
Those of us who have lived in Metro Detroit our whole lives have hoped for years that one day Michigan Central Station, the hulking train station that opened in 1913, then fell into disrepair and became a symbol of everything that was wrong with Detroit, would be given new life.
Miraculously, that day came thanks to the passion of William Clay Ford Jr., who realized that with a little work and polish, the eyesore could be transformed into a technology incubator and research hub for his family company, the Ford Motor Company.
The chairman is the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford. — spent $90 million to buy the three-story Beaux Arts train station and 18-story tower in 2018, then spent another $1 billion to renovate and restore it to its former grandeur.
