Trump Met With NRSC Chair Rick Scott at Mar-a-Lago, Adamant in Opposing Murkowski

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) walks through Statuary Hall to the House Chamber for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 4, 2020. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday dined with National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a Trump adviser confirmed to The Epoch Times.

The meeting took place on the heels of a spat with the NRSC and the Republican National Committee (RNC) over the use of Trump’s name and likeness to raise funds, especially considering the committees’ ongoing support of incumbents who backed Trump’s impeachment. The group includes Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), whom Trump vowed to oppose in the primary. During the dinner with Scott, Trump would not budge on opposing Murkowski, according to the adviser.

Politico was the first to report on the dinner.

Trump and Scott discussed candidate recruitment for the 2022 election and getting Trump’s support for specific incumbents, the Trump adviser confirmed. Scott mainly focused on finding the best candidate for the midterm elections and figuring out how to best work with Trump’s team.

In an interview with the Miami Herald ahead of the dinner, Scott said that he hoped 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 [Trump] 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.”

On Feb. 23, Scott swooped in to “cancel” a brewing GOP “cold war” after Trump issued a statement lambasting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in response to McConnell laying blame on Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In his comeback speech on Feb. 28, Trump mentioned McConnell but did not attack the Kentucky Republican.

Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, told Steve Bannon’s War Room earlier this week that the brief dispute between Trump, the RNC, the NRSC, and the National Republican Congressional Committee over the use of Trump’s name and likeness has been resolved. When Bannon pressed Miller to explain how the spat is over if the committees are still supporting the incumbents who voted to impeach Trump, Miller said the committees are just following the bylaws. He nonetheless warned that Trump would quickly cease cooperating if the committees attacked any of the Republicans he endorses against the GOP members who voted for impeachment.