Flake, GOP senators to meet with Trump on trade

Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), a staunch critic of President Trump, is joining a group of his GOP Senate colleagues at the White House Tuesday for a lunch with the president on trade. 

The White House said the senators, including Flake, reached out to to meet with Trump “to discuss trade priorities and their shared goal of American economic dominance.”

Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) are also attending the White House lunch. 

Chief of staff John Kelly, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, legislative affairs director Marc Short and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are also dining with the president.

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Flake’s inclusion is surprising. He has been deeply critical of Trump and denounced the president during a blistering Senate floor speech in October announcing he will not seek reelection next year. 

But all six senators meeting with Trump are proponents of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and are expected to urge the president to keep the U.S. in the pact. 

The threat of a possible U.S. withdrawal has shadowed tense talks with Mexico and Canada to renegotiate the agreement, sparking fears that Trump could pull out if negotiations collapse.

While announcing his decision not to seek reelection, Flake lamented that free-trade Republicans are losing their place in the party.

“It is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican Party — the party that for so long has defined itself by belief in those things,” he said.