--- title: Donald Trump Washington Visit Shows Republican Tension description: Donald Trump came to Washington seeking greater party unity, but he ended up showing some cracks in the relationship instead. canonical: https://time.com/4396918/donald-trump-congress-republicans-jeff-flake-mark-kirk/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-07T19:07:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:58.264Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Washington Visit Shows Republican Tension og:description: Two Senators found themselves sparring with the nominee. og:url: https://time.com/4396918/donald-trump-congress-republicans-jeff-flake-mark-kirk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f850824dbc6fe23/69889b11428a9ebe2ccd358c/gettyimages-545313208.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives at RNC headquarters for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and House Republicans July 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Washington Visit Shows Republican Tension twitter:description: Two Senators found themselves sparring with the nominee. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f850824dbc6fe23/69889b11428a9ebe2ccd358c/gettyimages-545313208.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Washington Visit Shows Republican Tension > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a7ca4671-e38b-4955-8915-f1fbbc59e5d5&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 7, 2016 7:07 PM UTC  Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives at RNC headquarters for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and House Republicans July 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives at RNC headquarters for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and House Republicans July 7, 2016 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 7, 2016 7:07 PM UTC Donald Trump came to Washington seeking greater party unity, but he ended up showing some cracks in the relationship instead. Some prominent Republican lawmakers who have been critical of Trump’s campaign opted to skip the two meetings, while others who did attend found themselves sparring with the presumptive GOP nominee. Still others came out of the meeting praising him. Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, who has been harshly critical of Trump, left the meeting early and declined to talk to reporters. ‘“Senator Sasse went to today’s meeting ready to listen,” his spokesman told TIME in an email. “Senator Sasse introduced himself to Mr. Trump and the two had a gracious exchange. Mr. Sasse continues to believe that our country is in a bad place and, with these two candidates, this election remains a dumpster fire. Nothing has changed.” Trump also had tense exchanges with Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who withdrew his endorsement of Trump in June, and Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who has criticized his rhetoric on Hispanic immigrants, [according to the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/07/07/trump-meets-with-hill-republicans-as-controversy-over-star-of-david-tweet-continues). “Today’s thing was basically a stream of consciousness and talking about a ton of polls and dozens of topics, much like his rallies,” a source with knowledge of the meeting told TIME. “At one point Trump claimed insider knowledge of the Clinton camp’s SCOTUS vetting process. And in that context he said something to Sasse, like ‘Surely you don’t want Clinton.’” Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John McCain and Kelly Ayotte did not attend the meeting, while Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quietly left early. With a line of cameras tracking them, Republican Senators who did attend filed one-by-one out of the Ronald Reagan Republican Chamber, home to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “I think you’re seeing the process of unification start,” said South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said. “Mr. Trump spoke and took questions. He helped himself quite a bit,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker. Across the street, protesters held cardboard cutouts of Republican Senators facing re-election this fall including Rubio, McCain, Ayotte, Pat Toomey and Rob Portman. They chanted “Small hands, bad plans” and “T-R-U-M-P, that’s how you spell bigotry!” as reporters sweat and police dogs panted in the capital’s 90-degree heat. The owner of the Exxon Mobil gas station up the street said the attention was great for business. _Zeke Miller contributed to this report._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4396918/donald-trump-congress-republicans-jeff-flake-mark-kirk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4396918/donald-trump-congress-republicans-jeff-flake-mark-kirk/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Washington Visit Shows Republican Tension","datePublished":"2016-07-07T19:07:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:58.264Z","description":"Donald Trump came to Washington seeking greater party unity, but he ended up showing some cracks in the relationship instead.","url":"https://time.com/4396918/donald-trump-congress-republicans-jeff-flake-mark-kirk/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election","Congress","Republican"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f850824dbc6fe23/69889b11428a9ebe2ccd358c/gettyimages-545313208.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f850824dbc6fe23/69889b11428a9ebe2ccd358c/gettyimages-545313208.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives at RNC headquarters for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and House Republicans July 7, 2016 in Washington, DC.","caption":"Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump arrives at RNC headquarters for a meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), and House Republicans July 7, 2016 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4396918/donald-trump-congress-republicans-jeff-flake-mark-kirk/","name":"Donald Trump Washington Visit Shows Republican Tension"}}]}] ```