President-elect Trump is taking a far more hands-on approach to working with Congress than his senator-turned-president predecessor.
President Obama spent four years in the upper chamber, working closely with many colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but when voters sent him to the White House, he notoriously gave Capitol Hill the cold shoulder. Former congressional colleagues, even some of his biggest supporters, often described him as distant and aloof, a no-drama leadership style that eschewed President George W. Bush’s chummy nicknaming of lawmakers who he cultivated with regular White House lunch and dinner invitations.
Trump’s direct, in-your-face engagement with likely allies as well as foes is already starting to break down some initial barriers on Capitol Hill and earning him high praise from early converts.
“There’s no secret — I never had much interaction with President Obama or his administration,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., told the Washington Examiner. “It looks like President-elect Donald Trump is much more engaged — and he has no problem at all jumping on the phone with you.”
Manchin, a conservative Democrat and top contender to become Trump’s Energy secretary before former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was chosen, has met with Trump once in New York when under consideration for the Cabinet post. The incoming president also has phoned him two other times.
“You get a phone call and he says, ‘Hey Joe, this is Donald,’ and that’s how it goes. It’s a pretty big change. I think it’s a welcome change … I have almost spoken as much to him so far as I did in eight years with Obama. That tells you a lot right there.”
Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have overcome their rocky campaign relationship to exchange daily phone calls, with Trump famously describing the top House GOP leader as a “fine wine” that he has come to appreciate over time — as long as Ryan doesn’t “cross” him in the future.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Trump aren’t exchanging colorful metaphors about their relationship just yet, although McConnell was clearly elated about the Trump coattails that helped Republicans maintain the Senate majority and the incoming GOP president’s selection of his wife, Elaine Chao, as transportation secretary.
Trump and McConnell met in the Senate shortly after the election, and days later McConnell and his wife dined privately with Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, both of whom are expected to have prominent White House roles.
McConnell’s office won’t quantify how regularly their boss and Trump speak, saying only that the post-election calls come “often” between the leaders as well as their staffs.
Before the Senate recessed in December, McConnell said he and Trump have a “terrific relationship” and lauded the incoming president for his “very high-energy” approach to reaching out to lawmakers and filling his Cabinet.
“In talking to my colleagues on the floor last week, it was astonishing how many of them had been talking to him,” McConnell said. “He’s very, very accessible; very energetic. I wonder if the man ever sleeps. And I think we’re all excited about the energy and the direction that he seems to want to take the country.”
It’s not clear if Trump will keep up the phone-call diplomacy, and there are limits to how effective it can be over time, veteran GOP operatives warn.
“Trump calling members is a good thing. It really helps build personal relationships,” said Cesar Conda, former chief of staff to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is now a lobbyist for Navigators Global. Conda argues that Obama’s lack of personal relationships on Capitol Hill “really hurt his second-term legislative agenda.”
“But he should pick and choose wisely when a call is required to close a deal or call in a chit,” Conda added. “His political capital isn’t unlimited.”
Trump’s Capitol Hill agenda will depend on his relationships with GOP leaders so it behooves him to reach out early and often. The outreach also has extended to the man who is positioned to become the biggest roadblock to his agenda: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The president-elect began the process early, phoning Schumer the morning after Election Day to focus on areas of common policy ground, and the pair of brash New Yorkers have talked several times since, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Trump also hasn’t avoided his chief primary rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a frequent critic who he is already clashing with Trump on Russian hacking and support for NATO pledges.
McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Trump have been in touch over their mutual support for Marine Gen. James Mattis to lead the Defense Department. Despite the insults exchanged during the campaign, McCain has described the conversations as going “fine.”
“It was just business,” he told the Examiner.
A week after Trump’s surprise victory, Trump and Cruz met at Trump Tower in what had to have been an awkward post-election powwow. Nothing was off limits in Trump’s primary crusade against “Lyin’ Ted” during the campaign, including the real estate mogul’s tweet that he might “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, insinuating some type of affair without any evidence, and suggesting that Cruz’s father was in cahoots with JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
There’s obvious lingering tensions between the two, but a Cruz spokesman has focused purely on the positive after the sit-down and said his boss views the Trump presidency as a “tremendous opportunity” to take the country in a better direction.
“Cruz offered to help in any way he could to advance a conservative agenda that was talked out during the campaign,” a spokesman said. “[The senator] told him he would be a great voice, a great protagonist for him in the Senate.”
