Is President-elect Donald Trump flexing his political muscle? Is there something bigger afoot?
Or is the former-and-future president simply wanting to party?
Those were the questions to initially arise after a new Axios report dropped late Tuesday, claiming that Trump would be bringing in every single Republican senator to his sprawling Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, … to party.
“President-elect Trump is preparing to invite the entire Senate Republican conference to Mar-a-Lago for a mega-MAGA party in the coming weeks,” Axios reported.
While final details are still being hammered out, the report noted that sources expect this “mega-MAGA party” to occur before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
“Trump is keen to celebrate [an election day] victory he sees as historic and fete the senators who helped him achieve it,” Axios reported. “He also wants to build trust with the lawmakers he needs to pass his sweeping legislative agenda.”
Sources that Axios spoke to reinforced the idea that Trump absolutely adores his West Palm Beach estate.
“Mar-a-Lago is special to the president. He’s at ease there. Everyone is,” one Trump advisor told the outlet.
The adviser added: “So it’s a good place to get everyone together outside of Washington. It’s team bonding. Trump is very much the player-coach.”
While the atmosphere will apparently be a friendly one, there will still likely be serious business discussed during the event.
“Republicans are in a heated internal conversation on whether to use one — or two — legislative vehicles to implement Trump’s immigration and tax reform policies,” Axios noted.
It is worth noting that Trump himself doesn’t seem especially worried about whether it takes one or two bills to get his agenda going.
“I like one, big, beautiful bill,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, per Axios. “But if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker because you can do the immigration stuff early.”
Trump noted that he “can live either way.”
Regardless of whatever business is — or isn’t — discussed at Mar-a-Lago, it’s clear that Trump’s going to use Mar-a-Lago as a second White House, of sorts.
Trump has held a number of crucial meetings at his resort over the past year alone, including with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, all manner of Silicon Valley power players, world leaders, and even some longtime foes.
(And that says nothing about some of the other planned visits, such as various House groups and governors visiting, as well.)
As Axios noted, Mar-a-Lago was referred to as the “Winter White House,” long before Trump purchased it.
It’s clear the former-and-future president is taking that nickname to heart.
