The next 24 hours could be interesting in Trump’s relationship with his own party. Today is the GOP primary in Alabama and Luther Strange is trailing Roy Moore by eight points. If he loses, that will be seen as a loss for Mitch McConnell, who personally requested that Trump go to Alabama to campaign for Strange and we know how that one turned out. Following that debacle, just like the meteorological disasters which have been coming in a conga line, is the healthcare vote and with three Republicans dissenting, it looks to be going down in flames. Conflict between McConnell and Trump is ramping up — again. Daily Beast:
Tensions between the president and Senate Republicans—McConnell in particular—have been building for months. Last month, Trump reportedly berated McConnell during a phone call for refusing to “protect” the president from federal and congressional investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. According to The New York Times, the call “quickly devolved into a profane shouting match.” [...]
One senior Trump administration official told The Daily Beast that the president is “well prepared to” shovel blame onto McConnell if and when the latest Obamacare repeal effort goes down in flames later this week. Another Trump confidant noted that the president regularly vents about “Mitch’s” seeming inability to get “anything over the finish line.”
A White House official joked that it has proven a winning “formula” for Trump to go after the unpopularity of top GOP brass, including McConnell, ever since the campaign. Trump even spent the last few days hammering home the point that Strange (who is locked in an election fight against former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore) isn’t even all that close to McConnell politically or personally, and that Strange would be “fighting Mitch” in the Senate as an authentic conservative.
Now on the other side of the ledger, formerly chic Le Cirque restaurant in New York has had its series of challenges lately, having been recently demoted to one star status by the New York Times and filing for bankruptcy in March. To add to its list of travails it is hosting a glitzy bash tonight to raise money for the RNC, hosted by Trump and attended by Eric and Jr. — and it ain’t cheap. Bloomberg:
For $250,000 a couple, donors can attend a “private roundtable” with the president, while $100,000 will guarantee “VIP access,” according to people with knowledge of the preparations. The minimum donation is $35,000, and about 150 people will probably attend, the people said.
Republicans are amassing resources as they prepare to defend their House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterm elections. Donors are scheduled to dine with the president as results trickle in from the Republican primary for a Senate seat in Alabama, where Trump’s favored candidate, Luther Strange, trails in polls.
While Republican high rollers party in de classe restaurants the citizens of storm ravaged Puerto Rico still sit in the dark. But isn’t it comforting to know that Trump and Jr. are raising money somehow to defray their legal expenses?