DORAL, Florida.—Republican leadership has convened at a Trump resort once again this week for their policy summit—but at least one no-show has gotten under his colleagues’ skin.
House Republicans held their retreat at Donald Trump’s golf resort outside Miami to pay homage to their party’s leader, who last November won back the White House and helped them hold their majority in the House and win back the Senate.
But Rep. Chip Roy, an outspoken deficit hawk and member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, proudly made his absence known with a proclamation on social media.
“It is being reported I am not at the so-called Republican retreat in Florida. I am not,” Roy posted on X. “I am in Texas, with my family & meeting with constituents, rather than spending $2K to hear more excuses for increasing deficits & not being in DC to deliver Trump’s border security [funding] ASAP.”
![President Donald Trump dances as House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, right, look on at the Republican Issues Conference.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/resizer/v2/WI3DXL4BQBDVZOKB6AWNBDE4OE.jpg?auth=d7500ee0a10003af77732fc8511672b66579aae6462871d6924313af22fd5721&width=800&height=557)
Roy, later speaking to Fox News, would not comment on other members of his caucus that skipped the summit, but was flippant about the costly affair in Trump’s tony golf resort.
“If you’re asking me to go spend money to go sit in a resort rather than doing our damn job… no, I’m not going to do that,” he told the network’s digital publication.
Republican leadership is reportedly livid over Roy’s social media sniping.
“Sadly enough, we have people sitting at home complaining about the meeting on Twitter, and they’re the ones who’d rather complain, attack, argue, than be part of the solution,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “We know who they are. We just have to deal with it.”
Vice President JD Vance even invoked his boss’s favorite cannibalistic serial killer while slamming the retreat no-shows. The veep, quoting an absent lawmaker, said those absent would “rather have lunch with Hannibal Lecter and eat his own liver than participate in the issues retreat.”
The vice president’s joke drew laughs from the members whose votes he needs in order to carry out Trump’s plans to reshape the U.S. government, but it also underscored a glaring problem: House Republicans aren’t all on the same page.
As Vance huddled with members about their agenda, he asked for room to compromise as they begin crafting a huge reconciliation bill to extend Trump’s tax cuts, curb immigration, and roll back Biden-era energy and other regulations.
House GOP leaders acknowledge it won’t be easy to please Trump since they are working with a razor-thin majority with some serious fractures. Hardliners, including Roy, are looking for significant spending cuts that could be difficult to pass through both chambers.
“We’re going to get this done, but I don’t want to downplay the challenges ahead. It is going to be a difficult next few weeks. The reason we’re going to succeed is that I think we’ve done the right preparation,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, the chairman of the centrist Main Street Caucus, said.
“This is going to be a marathon,” he said. “If you try to run 26 miles without doing the preparation, you will get your a-- kicked.”
Rep. Richard Hudson, who leads the House GOP’s campaign arm, said that passing Trump’s policy priorities is a “mandate” from voters, and will play a key role in the party’s ability to hold the majority in the midterms.
“I think the next election will be a referendum on how did we do delivering on the mandate,” he told the Daily Beast.