Trump takes victory lap at New York fundraisers

President Trump embarked on a fundraising tour through New York City on Saturday, hours after Senate Republicans delivered his agenda its most significant legislative victory to date by approving a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s tax code.

At his first stop of the day at Cipriani restaurant in Midtown Manhattan — a fundraiser for his reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC), according to The Associated Press — Trump boasted about the Senate’s early-morning vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, recalling how he learned the news hours earlier that lawmakers had approved the measure largely along party lines.

“Last night at three in the morning, I got a call,” he told a crowd of about 400 supporters. “I said, ‘call me, you can call me.’ It’s the largest tax decrease in the history of our country by far.”

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“We got no Democrat help and I think that’s going to cost them very big in the election, because basically they voted against tax cuts,” he added. “And I don’t think politically it’s good to vote against tax cuts.”

Just after noon, the president departed for his second fundraising event of the day at The Pierre Hotel, just blocks from his namesake Trump Tower. That was followed by a third high-dollar fundraiser at a private residence in Manhattan for his reelection campaign and the RNC, according to the AP.

The president’s remarks at the second and third fundraisers were not reported by the White House press pool.

The trio of fundraisers was a sort of victory lap for Trump, who has long spoken animatedly about his desire to reform the tax code, especially since GOP efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act floundered in Congress earlier this year.

But absent from Trump’s remarks — at least at the first event — was any mention of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

While Trump has frequently disparaged the probe as a “witch hunt,” it appeared to move closer to Trump’s inner circle on Friday when Michael Flynn, the president’s first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn, who was fired from the White House in February, also acknowledged publicly for the first time that he is cooperating with Mueller’s team, prompting speculation about what information Flynn could share with investigators.

Before departing the White House on Saturday, Trump repeated to reporters that there was “no collusion” between his campaign and Russian officials or representatives, though he did not elaborate on that claim.

But shortly after leaving his first fundraiser in New York, Trump offered his most substantial response yet to Flynn’s guilty plea, saying on Twitter that he fired Flynn because he had lied to Vice President Pence and the FBI about his communications with Kislyak — an apparent shift from past statements he made regarding Flynn’s ouster.

Nevertheless, as reporters were ushered out of his first fundraiser, Trump appeared confident in his party’s political prospects, charging that the Democratic Party does not have candidates capable of taking on Republicans.