Trump rallies Republicans: ‘We’re just getting started’

President Trump looked to rally Republicans behind his agenda on Thursday ahead of a key legislative stretch that many in the party believe could determine whether the GOP maintains its majorities in the House and Senate in the 2018 midterm elections. 

The president was in a jocular mood as he addressed a GOP lawmaker retreat in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., even as a political fight intensified back in Washington over whether to release a controversial memo authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). 

Trump drew laughs and applause from the crowd of GOP lawmakers and their families, who had gathered in the Greenbrier’s massive ballroom for lunch, as he joked about 83-year-old Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R-Utah) age and needled Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas) for being left off the GOP leadership list on the teleprompter. 

The president, fresh off a well-received State of the Union address, took a victory lap in which he ticked through a list of accomplishments from his first year in office.

Republicans, Trump said, had not received due credit for rolling back regulations, stocking the courts with conservatives or passing a tax-reform bill that has spurred some companies to announce new investments in the U.S. 

“For the last 12 months, I’ve kept promise after promise,” Trump said. “We’re just getting started.” 

{mosads}It was at times a rocky first year between Trump and GOP leaders in Congress, but that appeared to be a distant memory at Thursday’s retreat. 

“They have become very good friends and we’re now in battle together and in friendship together,” Trump said.

Trump praised Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for never wavering in their pursuit of their agenda, even after Congress failed to repeal and replace ObamaCare early in Trump’s first year. The president praised lawmakers for passing the tax bill during “a month of tremendous pressure.”

The room gave Trump a standing ovation as he shook hands with Ryan and McConnell at the end of the speech. 

The president said that Ryan called him earlier this week to tell him that he has never seen the Republican Party as united as it is now.

“The Republican Party certainly hasn’t quit,” Trump said. “If we did, we wouldn’t be here today, we would be sitting home saying, boy, that was a tough year. Instead, that was one of the greatest years in the history of politics.”

The president boasted that he had brought back “hundreds of billions of dollars” of pledged investments in the U.S. economy from his meetings in at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, and he attacked Democrats for dismissing the impact that tax reform would have on the middle class.

The president singled out House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has described tax savings for individuals as “crumbs.” Trump likened Pelosi’s remarks to Hillary Clinton describing his supporters as “deplorables” during the presidential race.

“Deplorable and crumbs, those two words seem to have a resemblance,” Trump said. “I hope it has the same meaning. But she called it crumbs. When people are getting $1,000, $2,000 and $3,000, that’s not crumbs. That’s a lot of money.”

Trump spoke on a brightly lit, elevated stage flanked by the Senate and House GOP leadership and two giant video screens and pointed to the leaders on his right and left as he thanked them for passing tax reform last year.

He singled out Hatch, calling him a “special guy,” and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), praising him for being available at all hours during the tax debate. 

He also pointed out Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, for including provisions on economic opportunity zones in the new tax law to help lower-income areas.

The audience applauded Trump’s citation of 2.4 million jobs created since the 2016 election and a 4.1 percent unemployment rate, but the reception was more polite than boisterous.

He also got a warm laugh when he declared, “We fulfilled more promises than we promised. I call it promises-plus.”

Republicans are increasingly optimistic that public opinion is turning in their favor on the tax bill and believe it could help them weather the stiff political winds they face in the 2018 midterms.

Immigration reform is the next priority for Congress, which faces a Feb. 9 government funding deadline and the prospect of another shutdown if a deal isn’t reached.

Trump urged the Senate to bring the White House proposal to the floor for a vote, even though Democrats have said it is a non-starter.

The president acknowledged that it would need support from across the aisle to pass, but he also signaled that he’d be fine walking away from a deal until after the election if Republicans have to give up too much. 

“They want to use it as an election issue, but it’s now an election issue that will go to our benefit, not their benefit,” Trump said.

“We have to get help from the other side, or we have to elect many more Republicans,” he added. “That’s another way of doing it.”