President Donald Trump met with Senate Republicans behind closed doors on Wednesday in a tense meeting that devolved mostly into a venting session for the president, according to lawmakers who were present.
The meeting came just hours after Trump abruptly canceled a signing ceremony to enact a bipartisan spending package aimed toward making housing more affordable, an announcement that caught several lawmakers off guard. The president vowed he would not sign any legislation until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act, a flagship election bill being spearheaded by Utah Sen. Mike Lee — in a move that has threatened to derail the party’s agenda.
“President Trump is playing hardball to secure American elections,” Lee said in a social media post after the meeting. “Proof of citizenship and voter ID are common sense, massively popular policies across the country among Democrats and Republicans alike, which is why President Trump continues to call for passage of the SAVE America Act.”
Trump arrived on Capitol Hill just after 1 p.m. local time, and he spoke with senators for roughly an hour. While his remarks began focused on the SAVE America Act, he quickly began airing grievances toward a handful of Republican senators who broke ranks to advance a resolution instructing Trump to end military operations in Iran.
That resolution, which is nonbinding and does not hold the force of law, passed the Senate on Tuesday.
“The president was mad as a murder hornet about the war power vote, and I don’t blame him,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said after the meeting. “Put yourself in his shoes: he’s right in the middle of a delicate negotiation, and the Senate votes to get out of Iran, and it upset him.”
Trump gets into yelling match with Cassidy
Trump spent much of the meeting talking about the war in Iran, according to senators who were present — which at one point prompted a fiery exchange with Sen. Bill Cassidy, whom Trump defeated in his primary election in May.
“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on. It’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved, and I want to know what’s going on,’” Cassidy said of his exchange with the president. “(Trump) did not particularly care for my comments, raised his voice, I lost my temper.”
“But again I matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and forth,” he added. “So I sat down and tried to de-escalate. I guess my point is, though, that the American people need to know more than we are being told. The Senate needs to know.”
Although the meeting was expected to focus mostly on passage of the SAVE America Act, Republicans emerged from the meeting without a determined path forward. And senators were unsure what would happen with the housing package — a major bill that Republicans had hoped to use for campaign fodder heading into the midterm elections.
It’s not clear if Trump will go so far as vetoing the legislation. If he does not sign the bill, it could still take effect after 10 days — but only if House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., formally sends it to the White House. He has not done so yet.
But some senators emerging from the meeting expressed optimism that either Trump would sign the deal, or that it would take effect without his signature.
“I mean, the president said he’s not signing it, but it still can go into law,” Utah Sen. John Curtis told the Deseret News. “He hasn’t said what he’s going to do, so let’s find out what he’s going to do.”