President-elect Donald Trump has invited multiple 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 Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership team to finalize which members would be invited, the sources said.
Between Jan. 10 and Jan. 12, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, lawmakers from states affected by the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, chairs of key committees and other groups of Republicans will visit Trump at his Florida residence, just days ahead of his inauguration to a second term.
The Mar-a-Lago trips 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. It also comes as Republicans prepare to take up one massive reconciliation package later this spring that will likely include an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax law.
Trump wants to make sure that Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum are unified and on the same page with his ambitious legislative agenda, two of the sources added.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment about next weekend’s visits.
Divisions between different factions of the party were on display after Friday’s speaker vote when members of the Freedom Caucus released a letter saying that they voted for Johnson “because of our steadfast support of President Trump.”
They added, “We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s track 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 is likely to have an easier time advancing its agenda once Trump is inaugurated.
But in the House, Republicans have a fragile majority and can barely afford to lose a single vote when advancing Trump’s preferred legislation. It’ll force GOP House members to be almost unanimously united on their agenda.
Already in the first vote of the year, three GOP lawmakers — Reps. Keith Self of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina — initially voted for someone other than Johnson for speaker.
Self and Norman changed their decisions minutes after casting their first votes, ensuring a victory for Johnson.
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