President Trump told Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday he is working on a new North American Free Trade Agreement as well as plans to denuclearize Iran and North Korea.
Trump, in an hour-long private lunch off the Senate chamber, also told the GOP he will help them in the upcoming midterms to get the message out to voters “that we are really on the same team,” and that a GOP Congress is needed to pass his agenda.
“He touched on a wide range of topics, from North Korea to China to Iran, and NAFTA as well as negotiations on a broader scale with regard to trade,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said after the lunch.
Trump and the senators did not bring up a buzzed-about topic in the Capitol about an administration aide whose private insult of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is battling cancer, was leaked to the public. Instead, Trump talked to senators about wanting to eliminate the growing global nuclear threat by scrapping the Iran deal for something stronger and going to North Korea to negotiate a deal that rids Kim Jong Un of nuclear weapons.
Trump told lawmakers the economy cannot truly thrive under bad trade deals and he aims to fix that, beginning with NAFTA.
“He really does have a focus on trade and he understands the economy is going to rely on fair trade,” Rounds said. “He said in order to make it a safer world he’s got to take care of the nuclear threats that are out there, both in North Korea and Iran. I think his focus was on the most serious issues in the world today and he makes clear resolving the issues surrounding North Korea and Iran are some of the areas he really has to focus on right now.”
Trump also urged lawmakers to promote the GOP accomplishments of tax reform, deregulation and confirmation of judges.
“He said he can really get the message out that we are on the same team,” Rounds said.
