Donald Trump paid a visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday in what was supposed to be a day of policy discussions and planning for a second Trump term. Instead, the former president reportedly spent a significant amount of time complaining about women.
Trump reportedly spent time complaining that superstar singer Taylor Swift had not endorsed him over President Joe Biden. “Why would she endorse this dope,” Trump wondered, per CNN. “He doesn’t know how to get off a stage.”
Swift has not endorsed Biden, although she has been critical of Trump in the past. The former president’s bizarre fixation on the singer has repeatedly reared its head over the course of the last few months. Earlier this week, excerpts from an upcoming book by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoode revealed that Trump complained about Swift during an interview, calling her “beautiful” but “liberal.” “I think she’s beautiful — very beautiful! I find her very beautiful. I think she’s liberal. She probably doesn’t like Trump. I hear she’s very talented,” he said.
Trump also wondered in his conversation with Setoode if Swift was “legitimately liberal” or if it’s “just an act.” Trump was apparently under the impression that Swift is still predominantly a country music artist.
As previously reported by Rolling Stone, allies close to the former president say Trump is planning a “holy war” against Swift should she endorse his 2024 rivals, and privately boasted that he was “more popular” than the entertainer. Given his legal troubles — including a recent felony conviction — and the close campaign he’s currently running against Biden, one would think other things would occupy his time besides the political leanings of Miss Americana.
Swift isn’t the only powerful woman Trump brought up in front of Republicans congregated to hear his plans for a second term. Trump also claimed that “Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is a whacko,” and that the former House Speaker’s daughter told him that “if things were different Nancy and I would be perfect together, there’s an age difference though.”
Christine Pelosi responded on X: “Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters — this is a LIE.”
“His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House,” she added.
Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters — this is a LIE. His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House. https://t.co/RkHP0uQbRw
In the days leading up to his round of meetings with Republican lawmakers, there was something on Trump’s mind outside of Taylor Swift and Nancy Pelosi.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, in private conversations with close associates, Trump has been recently mocking Capitol Hill conservatives who’ve criticized him for instigating the deadly Jan. 6 riot — but who nonetheless have agreed to meet with Trump this week or even support his 2024 candidacy against President Joe Biden.
Trump has been relishing his ability to make his intra-party critics on the Hill bend the knee, and in recent days he’s reserved his harshest taunts on the matter for the Senate’s minority leader Mitch McConnell. Though McConnell publicly denounced Trump as someone who should be held legally accountable for the Capitol assault that Trump caused, the senator for years has said he’d support Trump if he were the 2024 nominee, and also recently told reporters that he would meet with Trump when he was in town.
Trump, one of the sources who speaks to the ex-president often tells Rolling Stone, “sees this as a humiliation” of McConnell after “Mitch spent so much time,” allegedly, “trying to force Republicans to dump … Trump.”
This person adds that McConnell “failed, and the [former] president likes making fun of him, of course, especially now that he has no choice but to jump back on the Trump train.” This other source says Trump has privately vowed to play “nice” with McConnell, should the Senate minority leader continue to back him politically, though this source notes that Trump is, of all things, transactional but also notoriously mercurial.
McConnell and the other Senate Republicans will be hard-pressed to cow to Trump more than the House GOP did Thursday morning. Upon his arrival at the meeting, Trump was greeted with a chorus of “Happy Birthday” from Republicans (Trump’s birthday is Friday). The former president received a baseball bat and ball from the Congressional Baseball Game, which took place Wednesday. Trump reportedly referenced the 2017 mass shooting in which a gunman shot GOP House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and five others. “Steve shows great courage. I saw him in the hospital. I can tell your wife really loves you Steve because some wives wouldn’t care,” Trump said, per CNN. What wife would be indifferent to the shooting and near death of her husband? The former president has a few in mind, apparently.
When Trump wasn’t griping about women, he ventured into some discussion of his policy proposals should he win in November. He once again discussed his recently reigned-in view on abortion access, claiming it should be left up to individual states. “It became a complex issue 10 years ago, everyone wanted it back in the states, and we got it back in the states, sometimes good sometimes not good, some states went one way and some states went a different way,” he said. “Republicans are so afraid of the issue, we would have had 40 seats,” Trump said.
Trump also proposed an “all tariff policy” he would use to get rid of income tax in the United States, and reportedly called Milwaukee, Wisconsin — where the RNC will crown him their official 2024 nominee in just a few weeks — a “horrible city.”
Needless to say, some Republicans walked away from their meeting with the former president feeling like it was a waste of time.
“I lost interest after about 45 minutes,” one GOP rep told Fox News.
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