Republican Study Committee to meet with Trump in New Jersey next week

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) will huddle with former President Trump next week in New Jersey as conservatives plan their messaging efforts heading into the 2022 midterms. 

Spokespeople for both Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the RSC’s char, and Trump confirmed the meeting will take place at Trump’s Bedminster resort. The summit was first reported by the New York Post. 

Banks, who has emerged as an increasingly influential force among House Republicans said the meeting will serve as an opportunity to sync up messaging and what policies the GOP can try to push for on the campaign trail and in the House, both before and after the 2022 elections.

“At RSC, what we’ve been focused on is really developing an agenda, the traditional conservative issues that RSC has always been involved with: balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility, we released our budget last week, strong national defense, and pro-life, social conservative issues. But really, President Trump, where he’s led our party, is to be more focused on the China threat and RSC has been very active on that front,” Banks told the Post. 

“And China trade issues, big tech issues are very important to RSC, we’re very active in that space, confronting the big tech’s free speech and censorship of conservatives. We have our election integrity bill that I introduced, the Save Democracy Act. RSC is doing more on the immigration front than it has ever done before, and we look forward to talking to him about that,” he said.

The former president has been holding meetings with lawmakers at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida but recently moved his operations to New Jersey for the summer.

The meeting comes as the RSC has been increasingly aggressive in pounding the Biden administration’s policies. The body, the largest Republican caucus in the House, has panned Biden’s coronavirus relief and infrastructure plans as too costly and released its own budget proposal that would drastically cut taxes and spending.

Trump too has remained active in the party, emerging as a kingmaker within the GOP. He has floated a potential comeback bid in 2024 and has spent much of his time since leaving the White House continuing to claim that the presidential election last year was “stolen” from him due to unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud.

The former president is expected to play an outsized role in the midterms next year, already endorsing a slate of Republicans. While most of the candidates he’s supported have been incumbents, he has also threatened to back primary opponents against lawmakers he considers to be insufficiently loyal to his agenda.