President-elect Donald Trump has invited several groups of House Republicans to join him at Mar-a-Lago next weekend, three sources involved in the planning told NBC News.
Trump’s team worked with President Mike Johnson’s leadership team to determine which members would be invited, the sources said.
Between January 10 and 12, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, legislators from states affected by the state and local tax (SALT) deduction limit, key committee chairmen and other groups of Republicans will visit Trump at his residence in Florida. just days before his inauguration for a second term.
The trips to Mar-a-Lago come after a tense speaker vote on Friday in which Trump had to personally convince at least two holdouts to support Johnson’s re-election bid. It also comes as Republicans prepare to adopt a massive reconciliation package later this spring that will likely include an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax law.
Trump wants to ensure that Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum are united and on the same page as his ambitious legislative agenda, two of the sources added.
A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment on next weekend’s visits.
Divisions between the party’s different factions were highlighted after Friday’s vote when members of the Freedom Caucus released a letter saying they voted for Johnson “because of our strong support for President Trump.”
They added: “We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s record over the past 15 months.”
Along with Trump’s victory in November, Republican lawmakers retained control of the House and flipped control of the Senate, meaning the GOP will likely have an easier time advancing its agenda once Trump takes office. .
But in the House, Republicans have a fragile majority and can barely afford to lose a single vote pushing Trump’s preferred legislation. It will force Republican members of the House of Representatives to be almost unanimously united on their agenda.
Already in the first vote of the year, three Republican lawmakers (Representatives Keith Self of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina) initially voted for someone other than Johnson as president.
Self and Norman changed their decisions minutes after casting their first votes, ensuring Johnson’s victory.