©  Greg Nash

The Capitol Hill Club was the center of the political universe Thursday as former President Trump returned to Washington for the first time since his conviction.

The scene was a familiar one, with swarms of media and armies of competing protesters and supporters demonstrating outside.

Trump gave brief remarks after spending the afternoon meeting privately with Republican lawmakers.

Trump took aim at President Biden, who was holding a joint press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the G7 Summit in France.

“We’re a declining nation. We have a nation being laughed at all over the world and a leader being laughed at all over the world.” 

Trump’s whirlwind trip to Capitol Hill was part GOP “pep rally” and part strategy session to determine the Republican agenda if Trump should take back the White House.

A day earlier, Republican leaders in the House and Senate met to map out their agenda for the first 100 days if Republicans take back the White House and Senate and hold on to the House.

The agenda so far:

• Extending the Trump-era tax cuts.
• Increasing defense spending.
• Cutting mandatory spending elsewhere, but preserving Social Security and Medicare.
• Justice Department reforms and other regulatory reforms.
  
  

Trump’s behind-the-scenes musings:

• Trump said he’s surprised Taylor Swift isn’t supporting him because he passed a law to help songwriters.
• Trump promised to push more international tariffs. 
• Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said Trump privately trashed the idea of providing additional financial support to Ukraine.
  
  

But first, Republicans must win in November. 

Trump is the favorite to win the White House, but the race is very close and will be decided in a handful of swing states.

The House is a toss-up. Republicans are favored to win the Senate but some polls show Democratic candidates are running better than Biden, raising the possibility of ticket-splitting.

Case in point: A new Florida Atlantic University/Mainstreet poll found Trump leading Biden by 6 points in Florida. But Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) only leads Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell by 2 points — a 15-point swing toward Democrats in the Senate race since April.

And there are questions about whether Republicans can unite if they are given full control of the government.

Several Republican senators and House members who voted to impeach Trump were on hand for the private meetings, including Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Bill Cassidy (La.) and Rep. Dan Newhouse (Wash.). Romney says he will not vote for Trump, but he attended the meeting after his flight for an event in Florida was canceled.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), both of whom voted to impeach Trump, did not attend the meeting.

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he shook Trump’s hand “a few times” and that they “had a really positive meeting.” McConnell voted to acquit Trump at the impeachment trial, but he still blames the former president for the Jan. 6 riots. This was their first meeting since 2020. 

Trump jokingly said that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) should be nicer to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). It was a light moment but steeped in truth.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the head of the House Freedom Caucus, left the meeting without comment. Trump has endorsed Good’s primary challenger.

Trump insisted the party is united.

“I’m with them 1,000 percent. They’re with me 1,000 percent. We agree just about on everything and if there isn’t, we work it out. I’ve had a really great relationship with just about everybody here…and if it wasn’t fantastic, it gets worked out. We have one thing in mind and that’s making our country great.”

More coverage:

• Wisconsin Republicans rush to Trump’s defense after Milwaukee quip.
• Could the Teamsters endorse Trump?

Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Jonathan Easley, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

• Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to stand trial in Russia on espionage charges. 
  
  

• Federal judge blocks rule closing “gun show loophole” in four states.
  
  

• Scientists say they’ve found potential evidence of “Dyson spheres,” theorized as a way to detect alien life.

©  Greg Nash

The Supreme Court upheld access to the abortion pill mifepristone in a unanimous decision Thursday.

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion, siding with the Biden administration and mifepristone manufacturer Danco. 

The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel reports: 

“The ruling didn’t address the underlying regulatory or safety issues the plaintiffs brought up, and instead it decided the case only on standing. The justices found the conservative doctors in the lawsuit did not show they had personally been harmed by the government’s actions to regulate mifepristone.”

President Biden responded to the Supreme Court decision:

“Today’s decision does not change the fact that the fight for reproductive freedom continues. It does not change the fact that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, and women lost a fundamental freedom. It does not change the fact that the right for a woman to get the treatment she needs is imperiled if not impossible in many states.” 

Trump on Thursday underscored the salience of the women’s health issues in a post-Roe world, telling House Republicans to be careful about how they discuss abortion policy and to be respectful to women. It’s a clear sign he views the GOP as vulnerable on the issue in an election year.

The ruling comes amid a slew of political messaging bills around women’s health issues on Capitol Hill.

• Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bill to establish a national right to in vitro fertilization (IVF). The bill fell 12 votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Only two Republicans broke ranks and voted for the bill — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).
• Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked a bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) to provide protections for individuals seeking IVF access.
  
  

More coverage:

• Southern Baptist Convention votes to oppose IVF.
• Gallup: 82 percent support IVF.

• Republicans eye bill promoting “restorative reproductive rights.“

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, released new documents Thursday showing Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose three trips he took on the private jet belonging to billionaire conservative Harlan Crow between 2017 and 2021.

Durbin’s revelations are the result of a subpoena for files from Crow.

Thomas has been under fire for failing to report on gifts and travel he received from wealthy conservative benefactors, including several who had business before the court.

On his most recent filings, Thomas amended a filing from 2019 to include two trips Crow paid for that were “inadvertently omitted” at the time. The amendment came after ProPublica reported on the trip to Bali, Indonesia, which included “nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.” The estimated cost of the trip exceeded $500,000.

Durbin says the dates he subpoenaed for the Bali trip don’t match Thomas’s filing, “calling into question the accuracy of the details Justice Thomas decides to disclose.”

The documents are sure to add fuel to Democratic efforts to impose new ethics reforms on the Supreme Court.

Senate Republicans blocked a bill Wednesday that would create a mechanism to enforce a new ethical code on the Supreme Court.

The bill would have allowed Congress to investigate alleged violations and potential conflicts of interest at the Supreme Court following the Thomas revelations and Justice Samuel Alito’s flags controversy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the bill would be “overreach” and was only about “undermining” the high court.

Meanwhile, The Hill’s Dominick Mastrangelo takes a look at the ethical concerns surrounding the liberal activist who posed as a conservative Catholic to secretly record the justices.

A couple of new Supreme Court rulings today…

• Supreme Court rules for Starbucks in union case over terminated employees.
• Supreme Court rules man can’t trademark “Trump too small.“

©  Allison Robbert

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports:

Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) is leading a group of his fellow Senate Republicans vowing to block the fast-tracking of President Biden’s judicial nominees and U.S. attorney nominations “in response to the current administration’s persecution” of former President Trump.

The pledge targets any Biden nominee who expressed support for Trump’s prosecution by the Manhattan District Attorney or who agreed with the guilty verdict.

The pledge, which was also signed by Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), is effective until Election Day, when “the American people will have the opportunity to decisively reject attempts to settle political disputes through the legal system.”

…..

Meanwhile, in Georgia …

Trump’s team is appealing a state court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) to continue prosecuting him.

Willis’s team on Thursday asked the court to toss Trump’s appeal.

Last week, the appeals court froze Trump’s criminal trial as it determines whether Willis should be removed from the case over her relationship with a top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, who was also on the case. Wade recused himself from the case once their relationship had been uncovered.

The appeals court could hear Trump’s request in October, if it’s not thrown out before then. The criminal trial will likely take place after the November election.

Wade said Thursday he expects the trial will continue even if Trump is elected president.

More coverage:

• Trump, Hunter convictions lead to different narratives.
• Trump defense teams asks New York judge to lift gag order ahead of debate.

“Mr. President, please pardon Trump for the country’s – and your own – good,” by Paul E. Peterson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of government at Harvard University. 

“Contempt of Congress is not an idle threat,” by Don Wolfensberger, former chief of staff on the House Rules Committee. 

14 days until the first presidential debate.

32 days until the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

67 days until the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

145 days until the 2024 general election.

221 days until Inauguration Day 2025.

Friday

• Former President Trump’s 78th birthday.
• Turning Point Action’s “People’s Convention” gets underway in Detroit, with featured speakers over the weekend to include Trump, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former White House adviser Steve Bannon and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).

Saturday

• The G7 Summit concludes

Sunday 

• Father’s Day

Is there a story you think should be getting more attention? Something people should be talking about? Drop me a line: jeasley@digital-stage.thehill.com