Trump focused on own priorities as House GOP wrestled over policy

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump focused on other matters this week as House Republicans struggled to pass measures related to surveillance powers, agricultural policy and immigration enforcement funding, with former officials saying the president’s own priorities are likely to increasingly draw him away from the legislative grind.

The chief executive was heavily focused on his White House ballroom project, King Charles III’s state visit and his conflict with Iran as Speaker Mike Johnson and other House leaders worked to secure votes to get the chamber moving again.

Largely absent were the kind of social media posts and calls to Republican holdouts from the president in other legislative stalemates. Still, by leaving the arm-twisting and negotiating to House GOP leaders, Trump showed his confidence in Speaker Mike Johnson, those sources said.

“In a more normal administration, a president would be much more deeply engaged on an important intelligence reauthorization and the budget reconciliation moves of the Congress,” former Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Charlie Dent said in an interview Thursday. “But what is the biggest priority in this White House? It seems to be the ballroom.

“Look, the president has much more pressing business to handle. The ballroom can wait,” Dent said. “At this point, it’s really an unhealthy obsession.”

Trump on Wednesday was so focused on his own priorities, which have caused some recent fissures among Republican lawmakers, that he admitted to reporters he was unaware of a major Supreme Court redistricting decision that had come earlier that day.

“Tell me, when did the ruling come out?” the president asked a reporter in the Oval Office, flanked by the Artemis II mission astronauts and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “I’ve been with the astronauts. I’ve been with contractors because we’re trying to get the ballroom built ahead of schedule.

“It’s right on schedule — it’s ahead of schedule now. I want to keep it that way,” Trump added. He then appeared to refer to a closed-door ceremony with a son of his White House counsel: “And I was also with, commissioning some people, but one of David Warrington’s son. … He’s got this incredible son. So, he was just sworn in, so we had other things. Tell me about what happened.”

House Republican leaders maneuvered to eventually pass a renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for three years and approve a Senate-passed budget resolution that could clear a path for the party to fund immigration enforcement operations via a second budget reconciliation bill, as well as a five-year farm bill.

But a White House official said the president was leaving it up to Johnson and his leadership team to secure the necessary votes. The official, granted anonymity to candidly describe Trump’s role, on Tuesday said the vote-wrangling was being “driven by Speaker Johnson and his team,” adding: “Our staff is in touch and knows what’s going on. But Johnson’s team is working to resolve several things.”

The official on Wednesday night gave no indication that had changed as the chamber moved toward clearing both measures, with Johnson and other leaders huddling with members on and off the floor. Trump on Thursday morning participated in departure festivities for King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House and fired off Truth Social posts on other topics.

As the House was finally back in action late Wednesday night, Trump wrote an angry social media post about former FBI Director James Comey, who faces a new federal indictment over his own social media post showing seashells arranged to read “86 47.” Trump dubbed Comey a “Dirty Cop” and contended he “knows full well” the meaning of those numbers arranged in that way.

And on Thursday, as the Senate dealt with a looming deadline on the Section 702 reauthorization, Trump posted instead about the “SAVE America Act,” which has stalled on the floor.

Ivan Zapien, a former senior Democratic Senate aide, suggested Trump’s decision to stay out of the House drama was something of a vote of confidence in Johnson and his leadership team.

“Not sure if it’s luck, strategy or brilliance — but everyone bets against the speaker at the edge, and he keeps deciding where the edge is,” Zapien said in an email.

Dent said, for Johnson, “this week has, so far at least, been a big win because as a congressional leader, you don’t want to have to rely on the president — regardless of the party — to have to step in and act as your whip.”

Meanwhile, Trump appeared to leave it to Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and senior Justice Department officials to clear a path for his Federal Reserve chair nominee, Kevin Warsh, in that chamber.

The Justice Department late last week announced it would drop a Trump-desired probe into outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell over the president’s suspicions of fishy dealings related to cost overruns of a central bank complex renovation. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the Fed’s inspector general would investigate the matter, leading retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina to end his Warsh blockade.

‘Checks and balances’

By leaving things up to GOP leaders, G. William Hoagland, a former senior aide to then-Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, said in an email Trump acted in line with a message King Charles delivered in a speech to Congress on Tuesday.

Hoagland called the British monarch’s speech “very good” because “it was important and ironic to discuss checks and balances — after all that is what we fought the Revolutionary War over with King George III – and now his direct descendant was telling our president and Congress to respect checks and balances.”

Zapien advised against believing the attention-seeking president would not make House and Senate Republicans’ moves all about himself. “I’m guessing he comes in at the end … and declares victory,” he said.

Hoagland noted the House and Senate will be pushing up against a Trump-set June 1 deadline to get a second budget reconciliation measure on his desk. That means there is still ample time on the reconciliation clock for Trump to re-engage with congressional Republicans.

“When they get back, that’s when the hard work really starts on reconciliation,” Dent said.

But as of late Thursday morning, Trump did not appear ready to engage. Instead, he appeared to step on his own “America first” messaging while bidding farewell to the British royals.

“Great people,” he told reporters. “We need more people like that in our country.”