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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Trump trades the courtroom for RNC retreat in Florida | |
By Alayna Treene, CNN | |
Updated: | |
7:12 PM EDT, Sat May 4, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Former President this weekend traded a New York courtroom for Florida | |
banquet halls, where he mingled with his vice presidential contenders | |
and wealthy donors during the Republican National Committee’s spring | |
retreat. | |
The former president was the main attraction at a fundraiser luncheon | |
hosted at his Mar-a-Lago club on Saturday, where Trump courted his | |
deep-pocketed supporters as he attempts to catch up to the Biden | |
campaign’s ever-growing war chest. | |
Top GOP donors and high-profile party leaders first gathered at the | |
Four Seasons on Friday for a welcome reception with Trump’s | |
daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trump, House Speaker and House | |
GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik, according to sources familiar with | |
the weekend itinerary. | |
While the annual weekend retreat typically serves as a meeting place | |
for the GOP elite, this year’s special guests included a series of | |
Republicans on Trump’s VP shortlist. Some of them received praise | |
from the former president during Saturday’s luncheon, a source with | |
knowledge of the event told CNN. Trump called to the stage Stefanik, | |
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, Ohio Sen. JD | |
Vance, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, | |
among others. | |
Trump praised Stefanik as “an amazing talent” and said Rubio was | |
doing a great job. | |
Other notable guests included Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Tennessee Sen. | |
Marsha Blackburn, Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt,� | |
Pennsylvania Senate candidate and Ohio Senate candidate . | |
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — who has spent the last week | |
attempting to do damage control regarding a recently published excerpt | |
from her upcoming book, in which , Cricket — was also in attendance. | |
Trump is anytime soon, his senior advisers tell CNN, with his VP | |
shortlist remaining long and in flux, despite his team having already | |
begun the vetting process. He plans to make his official decision | |
public closer to the Republican National Convention in July. | |
“We’ll be making that decision, I think, closer to Wisconsin | |
time,” Trump told a Fox affiliate in Wisconsin on Wednesday. | |
“It’s very early right now.” | |
On Sunday, Trump is planning to attend the Miami Grand Prix. | |
Campaign trail and courtroom | |
Advisers for Trump’s campaign told donors at the retreat Saturday | |
that the campaign and its aligned groups raised $76.2 million in April, | |
two attendees told CNN. | |
In a presentation to donors, Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and | |
Chris LaCivita, as well as Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, walked through | |
the fundraising figures and presented a case for Trump’s electoral | |
path that suggested Trump could compete in Virginia and Minnesota, two | |
states that have leaned toward Democrats in recent elections. | |
The Biden campaign brushed off the idea. “Trump doesn’t have a | |
campaign operation in a single battleground state,” Biden campaign | |
spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement to CNN. | |
In their presentation, the Trump campaign advisers also previewed two | |
upcoming trips on Trump’s schedule for fundraising events in Ohio and | |
Kentucky on May 15 and Texas on May 22, both of which will take place | |
on a Wednesday — the former president’s one weekday that he is not | |
required to appear in a New York courtroom for his criminal hush money | |
trial. | |
On Friday, top Trump allies including Johnson, Stefanik, RNC chairman | |
Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, as well as a number of senators, | |
including Rubio, Tim Scott, and Blackburn, among others, delivered | |
presentations to the more than 200 people gathered at the Four Seasons, | |
according to attendees of the event. | |
The presentations featured discussions over how to message on abortion, | |
something they acknowledged was a key vulnerability ahead of November, | |
their latest internal polling, and the Trump campaign’s strategy to | |
expand the electorate among Black and Hispanic voters. | |
One of the presenters also privately admitted the hush money trial | |
“is bleeding money,” according to one attendee with direct | |
knowledge of the remarks, referencing the millions of dollars being | |
siphoned away from the Trump campaign to cover the former president’s | |
legal bills. | |
Johnson shows off relationship with Trump | |
Johnson’s attendance at the retreat serves as an opportunity for him | |
to showcase his relationship with Trump ahead of a critical vote to | |
strip him of his speaker’s gavel. | |
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Wednesday that she | |
plans to ’ when members return to the Capitol next week, a move that | |
comes after Democrats have said and ensure Johnson doesn’t lose his | |
job. | |
Trump, who has yet to publicly weigh in on the intraparty feuding, has | |
been annoyed by the saga, telling his advisers and others in his inner | |
circle that he views it as a distraction that is hurting the party’s | |
image at a time when he wants the full focus, and force, of the GOP | |
behind him, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the | |
comments. | |
Some of his quiet annoyance was on display this week, when Trump tapped | |
Whatley, the newly elected RNC chairman, to travel to Capitol Hill to | |
convey to the House Republican conference that he has no interest in a | |
divided party, sources familiar with Whatley’s comments said. | |
Whatley, acting as Trump’s emissary, also met separately with Greene, | |
and privately signaled to her to cease the drama, one of the sources | |
said. | |
Johnson has with Trump in an effort to show solidarity amid threats | |
to his job. Last month, he flew to Mar-a-Lago for a news conference, | |
which his team arranged, alongside the former president, during which | |
Trump praised Johnson and acknowledged the difficulty he was facing in | |
Congress. | |
“We’re getting along very well with the speaker, and I get along | |
very well with Marjorie. We have a speaker who was voted in, and it was | |
a complicated process. And I think very, it’s not, not an easy | |
situation for any speaker,” Trump told reporters at the time. | |
This story has been updated with new reporting. | |
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