Trump yuks it up to deflect Senate critics

President Trump likes to tell entertaining stories and he doesn’t mind if the facts don’t back them up or if the punch lines stretch the bounds of presidential decorum.

He also doesn’t mind using his stand-up act to forestall tougher conversations.

This was on display Tuesday when Trump regaled Senate Republicans, including some of his toughest GOP critics, during an hourlong private lunch in the Senate’s Mansfield Room. 

{mosads}Trump used humor and hyperbole during the meeting, leaving allies and critics alike charmed, if you listened to the Republicans leaving the room.

The Trump show also appeared at times to keep the Republicans in the room from talking about their differences, whether on substantive issues such as trade or the nasty remark an aide made about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), which left many of his colleagues demanding an apology that never came from the White House.

At one point, Trump pointed out that Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who in April described Trump’s trade policy as “nuts” and a threat to “light American agriculture on fire,” was among those cracking up.

“I even got Sasse laughing,” he said, according to several lawmakers in the room.

Senators never ended up having a substantive discussion on the president’s trade policies, which have worried lawmakers from states that depend on agriculture in particular.

“I started taking notes but then I just sat back,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss an internal meeting. “He was laughing with us. George Bush would have never yukked it up like that with us.”

The lawmaker said he and many of his colleagues have serious concerns about trade but challenging the president on trade or other issues didn’t feel appropriate, given the buoyant, joking tone of the meeting and the generally good mood in the room.

“He pretty much corralled the trade issue,” said the lawmaker.

White House aide Kelly Sadler’s remark that McCain’s opposition to Trump’s pick to lead the CIA didn’t matter because he was “dying anyway” also wasn’t addressed.

McCain is battling brain cancer and has been absent from the Senate all year. Sadler’s remarks, first reported by The Hill last week, caused a political storm in the Senate.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Trump’s most frequent GOP critic in the Senate, said he wanted to challenge Trump about the disrespectful comments but didn’t have the chance. 

“He gave us a lesson on filibustering,” Flake told reporters. “I think he knew he was going to get some tough questions on the McCain thing.”

Here are some of the things that Trump did raise during his meeting.

Emmanuel Macron

Trump claimed that French President Emmanuel Macron begged him to keep the United States in the Iran nuclear deal because the French carmaker Renault last year signed a major deal to sell cars in Iran.

Trump said he wasn’t impressed.

“Who buys a Renault?” Trump quipped, according to several lawmakers in the room.

A second lawmaker said Trump singled out the Renault Dauphine, an economy car that was once a huge hit in France but failed to make much of a dent in the U.S. market.

“If I were selling a lot of Renaults, maybe I’d say in the deal,” he joked, according to another source from the room.

Alabama Senate race

The loss of the Alabama seat long held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a sore spot with Senate Republicans, and has stirred fears within the conference about possibly losing the majority in November.

But Trump dismissed Democrat Doug Jones’s (D-Ala.) stunning victory, and assured his fellow Republicans that he feels very confident about the upcoming midterm election.

“He said Roy Moore was the only Republican in Alabama who couldn’t win that race,” said a GOP senator, referring to the GOP nominee, who was plagued by accusations that he preyed on underage women decades ago.

U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem

Trump claimed that he could get the U.S. Embassy built in Jerusalem for $400,000, not the $1 billion estimated for the controversial building.

Speaking to senators a day after ceremonies dedicated to the moving of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — and the killings of dozens of Palestinians seeking to cross into Israel from Gaza — Trump claimed to have called U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman to talk about the embassy’s cost.

Friedman said he knew of a building that could be refurbished and used as a new embassy for as little as $150,000, Trump told the senators.

“David, I want you to spend $400,000. I want it to look really nice,” Trump said he responded, according to a GOP senator who relayed the anecdote.

This lawmaker, however, found the story a little hard to believe.

“It would cost $400,000 just to fly the president and all his people to Israel.”

The president shared a version of the story later in the day when he spoke to an audience in Indiana.

The F-22 Raptor

Trump extolled the design and performance of the F-22 stealth fighter, the production of which the Obama administration curtailed in favor of other projects.

Then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates argued at the time that building more of the jets would cost too much and their services weren’t necessary to achieve air superiority in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2009, President Obama threatened to veto spending bills that included more money from the high-tech plane.

But Trump made clear on Tuesday that he loves the aircraft, the building of which involves contractors in as many as 44 states.

“He said it’s the prettiest plane,” said one lawmaker who attended the meeting.

Another GOP senator said Trump also claimed that China’s fifth-generation fighter plane, the J-20, appeared to be a copy of the F-22.

When this observation prompted surprise from some GOP lawmakers, Trump shrugged and said, “I know these things,” according to the lawmaker.

Rescuing the basketball players in China

Trump got some of his biggest laughs when he talked about winning the release of three UCLA basketball players, including a younger brother of NBA rookie Lonzo Ball, who were detained in China on shoplifting charges.

Trump joked that the players were all well over 6 feet tall and wouldn’t be noticed in “China, where everybody is like 5 feet,” according to a lawmaker who related the conversation.