Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, appears to be on the road to forgiving Donald Trump for the bad blood they once had after visiting the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago with his wife, Gisele.
Last week, Fetterman became the first sitting congressional Democrat to announce his intention to meet with Trump since he was elected in November. And now, reporting from the Washington Examiner suggests the Democrat made quite the impression.
“It was a totally fascinating meeting. He’s a fascinating man, and his wife is lovely. They were both up, and I couldn’t be more impressed,” Trump told the outlet, noting that the trio spent roughly an hour together. “He’s a commonsense person. He’s not liberal or conservative. He’s just a commonsense person, which is beautiful.”
While many parts of that statement are eyebrow-raising,Trump’s suggestion that Fetterman can be uniquely nonpartisan is a strange one. After all, Fetterman was a self-described progressive for years before abandoning the title and taking positions more aligned with conservatives.
For instance, Fetterman was the first Senate Democrat to co-sponsor the anti-immigrant Laken Riley Act, which compels the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants charged with nonviolent crimes. He has also pledged to support at least two of Trump’s Cabinet appointees, including Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Rep. Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador.
Some reporting suggests that Fetterman might even back his onetime political foe, Mehmet Oz, to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Fetterman and Oz went head-to-head in the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race, during which Trump endorsed the former TV doctor.
While Trump didn’t go into specifics about his get-together with Fetterman, he did tell the Examiner that they discussed “the fate of U.S. steel, support for Israel, shoring up the border, and the geopolitical benefits of acquiring Greenland.” They also discussed Trump’s oft-repeated threat to seize control of the Panama Canal, which Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino has already rejected.
Fetterman’s office did not respond to Daily Kos regarding his take on the meeting with Trump.
Even with Fetterman’s pivot to the right, it’s hard to see how he and Trump found any common ground on policy matters. Maybe this is what’s to be expected from Democrats following the 2024 election, or maybe Fetterman played nice, holding out hope that Trump would cave and name him “Pope of Greenland.” (That, of course, did not transpire.)
Either way, Trump seems to be loving the fact that his onetime enemies, ranging from tech moguls to Democrats, are already bending a knee to him.
“It’s been amazing, and there’s been cooperation within the Republicans and a lot of the Democrats,” he told the Examiner. “I will say that Sen. Fetterman was very impressive to me, really impressive.”
The switch-up with Fetterman, in particular, is surprising considering that they used to hate each other. Without citing evidence, Trump once alleged that Fetterman used hard drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, and “supports taxpayer-funded drug dens.”
And as recently as November, Fetterman blasted Trump for promoting election fraud-related conspiracies before Election Day. Of the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania, Fetterman said that President Joe Biden “wrecked [Trump’s] shit by 80,000 votes.”
Even if their relationship is on the mend, some of Fetterman’s former staffers are disturbed by it, with one calling his pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago a “pick-me move.”
“I obviously hate it, but it’s also kind of hilarious and epic,” the anonymous staffer told Politico last week.
But sadly, Fetterman isn’t alone in his sudden flocking to Trump. Billionaires, celebrities, and Democrats have flooded to Mar-a-Lago or signaled that they’re prepared to kiss the ring. So maybe Trump’s one-time declaration that “EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND!!!” has a kernel of truth to it.
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