Trump Returns to Washington With Renewed Grip on the G.O.P. – The New York Times

Donald J. Trump flew into Washington last summer in a state of misery. He was there for his criminal arraignment, and he told associates afterward that the city was disgusting. He could feel Washingtons hostility, aides said.

On Thursday, three and a half years after a throng of his supporters whipped up by his false claims of a stolen election attacked the Capitol, Mr. Trump returned to the nations capital under much different circumstances to flex his dominance over a political and business establishment that has been forced to come to terms with him.

The former president is now the Republicans presumptive presidential nominee against President Biden, after vanquishing several primary rivals, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in recent months and rallying a wide range of Republicans behind him in denouncing his recent criminal conviction in Manhattan as evidence of a weaponized justice system.

Mr. Trumps meetings with lawmakers including Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader who denounced him on the Senate floor weeks after the violent attack on the Capitol by the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021 were the starkest examples of how an establishment that still hates him has accepted his potential return to office. After years of hoping that someone else could step up to lead its party, that establishment is gradually submitting to the reality of the 2024 campaign.

Theres high anticipation here and great excitement, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday before Mr. Trumps visit, which was his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the Jan. 6 attack.

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Trump Returns to Washington With Renewed Grip on the G.O.P. - The New York Times