By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR IN MAR-A-LAGO
Donald Trump began his remarks to Senate Republicans at Mar-a-Lago with a story about a highly successful manufacturer of floor mats.
He almost certainly didn’t mean to diminish his guests, who flew 1,000 miles to dine with him inside a gilded ballroom at his Florida club – which Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the ‘Number One club in America’ in his own remarks saluting the president.
But it underlined the uneven power dynamic, during a week in which Trump asserted executive power as he strode across the bureaucracy, culminating with the dismantlement of the foreign aid agency Congress had funded in a move cheered by lawmakers in his party.
A line of Bentleys, Rolls Royces, and Maseratis were rolling into Trump’s West Palm Beach club on a crisp Friday night, with valets gunning their engines to keep up the traffic flow.
Guests guests decked out in evening wear exited from ultra luxury vehicles, some equipped with throw-back suicide doors. Among those spotted were former Rep. Devin Nunes, who runs Trump’s media company, with a value that has ballooned to $7 billion.
With 41 senators and some spouses gathered around him for the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s winter meeting, Trump referenced the big donors who were hovering nearby – but not inside the gilded ballroom where each guest got treated to an enormous wedge salad and a 35 minute speech by the president. He credited the donors with putting them in power.
‘There’s about 30 of them. And I said, come outside and see the people you got elected,’ Trump told the senators.
‘And some of them are tremendously successful people – WeatherTech company, privately owned, that only makes its product here – doesn’t want to go to other places. It’s a great product – David,’ Trump said.
He was name-dropping David MacNeil, a billionaire who started the firm, which manufactures car floor mats and other accessories, and who recently purchased a $38.5 million mansion in Florida and has talked up Trump’s tariffs while shifting production here.
President Donald Trump invoked the head of Weathertech, which makes plastic floor mats and other products to protect cars, in remarks to Republican senators during a week when Elon Musk’s DOGE shuttered USAID
‘It’s been an amazing period of time,’ Trump said.
Trump spread his arms wide while greeting the senators, in a gesture Senate Majority Leader John Thune immediately made himself.
Thune called Mar-a-Lago ‘the Number One club in America,’ then upgraded it to the best in the world.
‘The lord has big plans for you, obviously,’ Thune told Trump, in reference to the assassination attempts against him.
Trump pointed to two wealthy cabinet officials in the room, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy chief Chris Wright, who each moved from the private business to public service.
‘Many of you are so talented. You can do whatever you want to do, but they want to do what you’re doing. In other words, you like power,’ Trump said, earning a laugh from the lawmakers.
Some of the Republicans in attendance acted like fans, posting grinning selfies online after giving Trump a standing ovation in the room.
‘Great dinner with President Trump at Mar a Lago tonight,’ wrote Sen. Steve Daines of Montana.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the ‘Number One club in America’
A steady stream of Ross Royces and Bentleys pulled into the club Friday night
Trump’s government car, ‘The Beast,’ got a good parking spot
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) was among those to post their pictures with Trump
Trump joked about chief of staff Susie Wiles, who he said was known as the ‘ice queen’
Trump name-checked automotive accessory manufacturer David MacNeil, who picked up a $39 million home last year. The home’s boat dock on the lagoon is pictured (center)
‘Cindy and I appreciate President Trump hosting a group of us tonight at Mar-a-Lago for dinner. Great night talking about all the work we’re going to get done for the American people this year,’ posted Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).
Trump repeatedly stressed the importance of unity, as he spoke about getting almost all of his nominees confirmed and talked up one of the few who hit roadblocks.
The confab in West Palm Beach came shortly after Trump once again demonstrated his ability to assert his authority on what he calls the ‘swamp’ in DC – naming himself chairman of the Kennedy Center board and saying he’ll strip predecessor Joe Biden of his security clearance.
He also dismissed the national archivist, after a clash that resulted in Trump being charged with holding national security documents at his Florida club. The DOJ withdrew an appeal in the case after he won the election.
‘We had a couple of people that had to get a little bit, ah – had to study it a little bit further [for] some of our nominees,’ he said while discussing nominations.
‘Kennedy, I think he’s up to having dinner tonight. It’s very interesting, but he’s a good person and he’s not a radical,’ Trump said of Robert F. Kennedy, his nominee to lead the Health and Human Services Department.
He took on Kennedy’s anti-vaccine reputation by saying his children were vaccinated. He brought up the link Kennedy has made between vaccines and autism despite numerous scientific studies. ‘Maybe it’s pesticides,’ Trump offered.
But the biggest test of power in the frenetic early days of Trump’s administration has been over his DOGE chief Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle federal agencies.
As he had done earlier Friday in Washington when he defended a 25-year old Musk aide who resigned over racist posts, Trump lauded Musk’s team.
‘That’s one of the beauties of what Elon is doing. He’s got – he started with a group of 25 super geniuses. They wear undershirts … And then I realized he’s got a 182 IQ,’ Trump said, getting a laugh from the crowd of senators.
In a room that included Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Susan Collins, Trump spoke openly about ending the agency, which on Friday had its name blacked out with tape in its DC headquarters, setting off a court fight.
‘It’s amazing, actually, what they’ve exposed and to a level where they cut 97% of the people out,’ Trump said. ‘The whole thing is a scam. And you look at some of the people working there, they’re very political people. They’re relatives. It’s just terrible. And you’re going to find that elsewhere,’ Trump said.
Trump indicated the orders are coming from him – with more agencies in the cross-hairs, including the Pentagon, which usually enjoys strong support from Republicans.
‘And I said: Go to the next, go to the next one. I’d like you to look at the Department of Education, and I think you’re going to find this very similar – different, but similar. And go into the military. Go into everything. I mean, I want you to go into everything,’ Trump said.
