The SAVE America Act barely came up at a Wednesday lunch with Senate Republicans that turned into a vent session for President Donald Trump.
The Iran war consumed much of the closed-door meeting, which took place one day after the Senate passed a measure to limit his war powers, and Trump was fuming over the four Republicans who helped Democrats with that vote. Trump blamed Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), whose decision to attend an event with the president in Pennsylvania was not decisive but hurt the GOP’s vote count. Most of his anger, though, was directed at Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), one of the “no” votes.
The exchange got so heated that Cassidy and Trump were openly yelling at one another, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the lunch.
“It was, Sit down, no, I’m not gonna sit down. You sit down — OK, I’ll sit down, but not because you’re telling me to,” said one of those sources.
The president also fumed over his two impeachments, relitigating the Republicans who voted to convict him and his “perfect” call with Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump also complained about the “87 indictments” he said were subsequently thrown at him.
Cassidy, in particular, has drawn the president’s ire for his 2021 impeachment vote, and Trump ran a successful primary challenge against him over it.
“We covered a lot of territory,” said one source who described Trump’s remarks as winding. “He talked a lot about Iran, aired a bunch of internal grievances within the conference.
“It’s Trump, so there was a lot of weave,” the source added.
“He, as he usually does, spoke more off-the-cuff, instead of from a prepared speech,” said the second source.
The meeting opened with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the host of the lunch, advocating the SAVE America Act, a sweeping election bill that has stalled in the Senate. Scott discussed the ways Republicans could pass the bill, including eliminating the filibuster and an open-ended period of debate that might allow them to sidestep it. Trump then closed the lunch with a “parting message,” warning that voters won’t turn out in November if the Senate does not find a way to get the bill to his desk.
Otherwise, Trump dominated the meeting with unrelated concerns, and one source said Republicans were barely able to get a word in edgewise.
“Every once in a while, somebody would interject a word or two, but that was the only line of significant dialogue,” said the source.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), the lead sponsor of the SAVE America Act, did not get a chance to speak, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) stayed silent.
THUNE URGES TRUMP NOT TO VETO BIPARTISAN HOUSING BILL: ‘HOPE HE DOESN’T GO THERE’
One of the sources said the way the meeting went is evidence that Trump and Senate Republicans need to meet together more regularly, and that it would be beneficial for Vice President JD Vance to come to the Capitol more frequently as well.
“It reaffirms to me the notion that we need to have the president and senators spending more time together,” the source said. “I think there’s a lot to be gained by keeping those communication lanes wide open.”