Sen. Rick Scott to Meet With Trump at Mar-a-Lago Amid Growing Tensions With GOP

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 23, 2021. Erin Scott/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), is set to meet with former President Donald Trump at his private club in Palm Beach, Florida this week amid growing tensions between the GOP’s political committees.

Scott, a former two-term Florida governor, was an early endorser for Trump’s bid for president in 2015 and has remained loyal to the former business mogul.

He was also the only member of Senate Republican leadership to vote in favor of challenging the 2020 election results to favor Trump’s repeated claims of election fraud.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Scott said that he hopes to use the meeting to reinforce the need for Trump to work with the NRSC as Republicans look to win back their Senate majority next year.

“I want to be an additive, I want us all to row the boats in the same direction,” Scott said. “My goal is to tell the [former] president what I’m doing. I’ve talked to him, and he tells me he wants to be helpful to me. He’s committed to Republicans taking back a majority in the U.S. Senate.”

His upcoming meeting with Trump comes amid growing tensions between the former President and the GOP’s political committees, including the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and the NRSC over fundraising.

On Monday, the former president issued a statement on his official website urging donors to direct contributions to his leadership PAC Save America rather than to the GOP’s political committees.

“No more money for RINOS. They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base—they will never lead us to Greatness. Send your donation to Save America PAC at DonaldJTrump.com. We will bring it all back stronger than ever before!” Trump wrote.

President Donald Trump before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on May 29, 2018. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

However, Trump issued a second statement the following day stating that he supports the Republican Party and its affiliated groups, but would work to withhold money from so-called RINOs, or Republicans in name only. He also criticized them for using his “likeness or image to raise funds.”

“So much money is being raised and completely wasted by people that do not have the GOP’s best interests in mind. If you donate to our Save America PAC at DonaldJTrump.com, you are helping the America First movement and doing it right. We will WIN, and we will WIN BIG! Our Country is being destroyed by the Democrats!” the former president said.

As the new chairman of the Mitch McConnell-aligned NRSC, Scott is in charge of spearing the GOP’s effort to take back the Senate, putting him in a delicate position with Trump, who has openly mocked McConnell since the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.

Scott has vowed to support GOP Senate incumbents, including those that Trump is hoping to oust in 2022, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), who was among seven Republican senators who voted to convict him in his second impeachment trial last month.

Last week, Trump vowed to travel to Alaska to campaign against Murkowski, a longtime critic of his, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

In a statement to Politico on Saturday, Trump said: “I will not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski. She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be—in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator.”