Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a former Indiana congressman, is expected to be a key conduit to lawmakers and was to meet with House Republicans on Wednesday. Trump has taken steps to fill out a more traditional congressional outreach team. He’s hired Rick Dearborn, a former aide to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, as a deputy chief of staff and Marc Short, a top Pence aide, as the White House legislative affairs director. Both previously served in chief of staff positions on the Hill.
They'll have no shortage of work to do. Republicans in Congress differ sharply from Trump on major issues, including trade, Russia policy and entitlements.
Fear of a Trump Twitter tirade could help congressional leadership, which has chafed with its own membership in recent years.
That brash approach appeared to tame—at least for now—a rowdy group of House Republicans who have flummoxed both former House Speaker John Boehner and Ryan at times.
“I don’t think there’s any question that the president-elect’s tweet this morning absolutely shifted the debate on this to where yesterday’s decision was reversed. There’s no two ways about it, because as of last night it was a done deal,” said Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., one of Trump’s earliest and most vocal supporters in Congress.
Collins, who serves as congressional liaison to the Trump transition team, said he didn’t receive any heads up about Trump’s opinion on the rules change before the president-elect tweeted.
House GOP leadership aides said Ryan’s office was in touch with Trump’s transition team about the changes on Monday evening but Trump’s views were not clear until he fired off the tweets.
Trump didn’t flatly oppose the decision—he questioned the timing and the prioritization of it—and his tweets did not chastise lawmakers on the merits of their plan.
By suggesting the watchdog apparatus under siege from lawmakers might be “unfair,” Trump spoke to lawmakers who have complained that they have been unfairly targeted by the independent ethics office. A top Trump adviser, Kellyanne Conway, told ABC on Tuesday morning, prior to Trump’s Twitter posts, that there had been “overzealousness” under the old system.
Trump had few admirers in Congress when he launched his campaign about 18 months ago but his tactics appear to be working.
“I’m not with him on everything, but on ‘drain the swamp,’ I will work with him on anything he wants to do,” said North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican. “My hope is that his involvement will open a door for us. I’m not sure how wide, but a crack is better than no crack.”
Epoch Times contributed to this report
