Trump campaign rolls into D.C. for politics and commerce
GOP front-runner Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed, consummate political outsider, is set to meet with the titans of the political establishment Monday when he arrives in Washington to hype both his campaign and local business interests.
A series of meetings, including an afternoon press tour of the future Trump International Hotel, will be capped off by a speech to the powerful pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference. The conference is expected to host Trump's two Republican rivals — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — along with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to be in Arizona Monday.
Trump also is set to huddle privately with a mix of key Republican lawmakers and other party figures in an attempt to smooth relations, as his fractious campaign shows little sign of faltering. His campaign confirmed that Trump would be meeting with top Republican officials, as first reported by the Washington Post, but would not offer details of the attendees or the agenda.
The real estate mogul declined to elaborate on his planned message to AIPAC or whether he would honor a previous pledge to remain neutral in the Israel-Palestinian dispute so he could attempt to strike a peace deal. Trump's opponents said the U.S. should stand with Israel, not declare neutrality.
"I think making a deal would be in Israel's interests,'' Trump told ABC's This Week. "I'll tell you what, I don't know one Jewish person that doesn't want to have a deal, a good deal, a proper deal, but a really good deal,'' the candidate said.
Trump, however, declined to define what such a deal would include or how he intended to address the matter in his Monday speech.
"Well, I'll define that tomorrow," Trump told ABC. "I'm not going to define it now."
Not all conference attendees are so anxious to hear Trump's explanation and some are planning a demonstration, though different from those that have followed the candidate's rallies and appearances.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism with represents about 900 congregations, said he and other Jewish leaders are planning on skipping the speech to lead a study on "Jewish values.''
"The values of our reform Jewish movement include equality, diversity, justice, humility, and civility,'' Jacobs said. "Thus far, Mr. Trump has conducted his campaign as if those are not his values.”
Rabbi Jonah Pesner, senior vice president of the URJ, said Trump's "hateful rhetoric and bigoted comments'' have set a disturbing tone in the campaign.
"Such behavior is unacceptable in American society,'' Pesner said.
Trump's arrival in D.C. comes after yet another volatile weekend on the campaign trail where violence continued to shadow rallies and other appearances. He attributed the persistent troubles to paid "agitators" bent on derailing his presidential bid.
Though he acknowledged that the beating of demonstrator at a weekend Arizona rally was “tough to watch," Trump suggested Sunday that he was more concerned that his rallies and speeches were being targeted for disruption.
“I wouldn't use the word upset," Trump said on ABC, referring to the Arizona clash in which a man draped in an American flag was repeatedly punched and kicked. “I think it's very unfair that these really, in many cases, professional, in many cases, sick, protesters can put cars in a road blocking thousands of great Americans from coming to a speech and nobody says anything about that."
Responding to earlier suggestions that his supporters could riot if he was denied the nomination at a possible brokered Republican convention later this summer, Trump said he didn’t want “problems’’ but described his supporters as formidable.
“Look, these people are fervent," he said. “They are really -- they want to see positive things happen for our country…I don't want to see riots. I don't want to see problems. But, you know…I've gotten more than two million votes more than anybody else."
On the business side, Trump has invited the press to join him Monday for a tour of the Old Post Office, the historic building on Pennsylvania Ave. between the U.S. Capitol and the White House that Trump is converting into a hotel.