Former President Donald Trump came to Washington, D.C., Thursday to meet with Republican members of Congress to bring the Republican Party together.
 
Trump praised Mitch McConnell. He jokingly asked Marjorie Taylor Greene if she was being nice to Speaker Mike Johnson. That was likely Trump’s way of telling her, “Hey, it’s an election year. We’re all on the same team.”
 
Mitt Romney had announced that he wouldn’t attend the meeting with Trump, but he ended up going anyway.
 
Trump talked about uniting the party, winning the election, their agenda for January 2025, and their plans to save the country. He also did some things that surprised people.
 
For example, when Trump was asked about Hunter Biden, he was very empathetic and gracious, saying:
 
“Well, I think [addiction] is a very serious thing. I understand that whole subject. I understand it pretty well because I’ve had it with people who have it in their family.
 
"It’s a very tough thing. It’s a very tough situation for a father, it’s a very tough situation for a brother or sister … whether it’s alcohol, or drugs, or whatever it may be… So, that’s a tough moment for the family. It’s a tough moment for any family involved in that.”
 
Trump also endorsed Larry Hogan in the Maryland Senate race, even though Hogan has been a vociferous critic and has already said he will not vote for Donald Trump.

But when Trump was asked if he would support Hogan, he wasn’t at all vindictive. He said, “I’d like to see him win. I think he has a good chance to win.”
 
The reason is obvious — you need 51 votes to control the Senate. So, even though Hogan has been a real antagonist, Trump understands the need to get to 51.
 
Trump also met with approximately 100 business executives at the Business Roundtable to explain his agenda and didn’t back off of anything. He promised to renew the 2017 tax cuts, which expire next year, and to scale back regulations.
 
The bottom line is that Donald Trump is running a very sophisticated presidential campaign. He is reaching out to multiple audiences. In fact, Trump went to a black church in Detroit Sunday to outline his plans for black Americans.
 
Hats off to him — he is competing for every vote.
 
 
 
The Tax On Tips
 
When Donald Trump was in Las Vegas, he said he would end the federal tax on tips. Many political analysts dismissed the remark as pandering to the employees of service industries. He brought up this plan Thursday with the Business Roundtable because he’s trying to get more exposure for the idea.
 
Think about all the people you see working at restaurants, hotels, and as Uber drivers. How many young adults in college work part-time jobs where they earn tips?
 
A lot of people earn tips!
 
Trump’s idea is a stroke of genius, and it is consistent with what he has done his whole life. From the hotels to the casinos to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s employees always spoke very highly about how he treated them.
 
I also heard a couple of Democrat strategists who, rather than attacking the tax-free tip idea, suggested it was the kind of creative policymaking they wished the Biden campaign was doing. Good luck waiting for that!
 
 
 
Supreme Disappointment — Not Entirely
 
There was a lot of disappointment Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled 9-to-0 on the abortion pill case. I am disappointed! But the Court did not rule that abortion pills are okay. Those of us who are pro-life need to be careful how we frame this.
 
The justices ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring the case, and the justices could not find how they were harmed in a way that required the Court to intervene. Every justice agreed with that decision.
 
Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network and a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, said there is a silver lining in this 9-to-0 decision that we should not overlook. She said:
 
“It’s notable that the Court went out of its way to underscore the importance of conscience rights and say that existing federal law protects rather than coerces pro-life doctors…  Hospitals can no longer hide behind specious legal arguments to strong-arm doctors, contrary to their consciences.”
 
In other words, pro-life doctors and hospital staff have strong protections against being forced to perform abortions or provide abortion pills.

That was one of the reasons why the justices ruled 9-to-0. Even the liberals had to accept the notion that pro-life doctors cannot be forced to participate in abortions.
 
While I am disappointed that the Court did not examine whether the FDA’s relaxed regulations were legal or not, they did, by a 9-to-0 vote, uphold a major principle in the battle we have been fighting.
 
 
 
The Meanderer-In-Chief
 
When I saw the video Thursday of President Biden meandering away from the other G7 leaders, I was embarrassed for him and our country.

The prime minister of Italy became Biden’s caregiver for a few moments when she walked over to retrieve the president and bring him back to where the photos were being taken.
 
Meanwhile, the leaders of the other G7 nations have been meandering away from their people. Unbelievably, Joe Biden, who is hitting record low approval ratings (37%) for an American president, has higher ratings than most of the other heads of state.
 
Here’s their approval ratings: 

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (30%)
• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (25%)
• U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (25%)
• French President Emmanuel Macron (21%)
• and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (13%) 

Every one of them has bought into all the left-wing nonsense — open borders, global warming, and radical policies that are crushing farmers. In almost every one of these countries, there is a populist revolt against failed leftist policies.
 
The only leader who is still somewhat popular, and more popular than the rest of the G7 leaders, is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (40%), who ran as a populist and promised to take Italy in a different direction.
 
 
 
Zelensky Exposes A Major Problem
 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in recent days that he wants 25 Patriot defense systems, but no less than 7, to defend his country. But there’s just one problem.
 
According to the New York Times, the Patriot system is “one of the scarcest weapons systems in the U.S. arsenal… The Army has deployed only 14 of them, in the United States and around the world.” And Raytheon reportedly makes only 12 systems a year.
 
Maybe the best thing coming out of Ukraine is that it is exposing the sad state of our industrial base when it comes to making weapons that will be needed in the next war that is just over the horizon.
 
 
 
Closing Last Week On A Positive Note
 
A federal judge just blocked enforcement of Joe Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX. The law was intended to protect women from discrimination. But Biden recently changed it to include men who pretend to be women. The judge’s order bans implementation of Biden’s insane policy in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho.
 
This ruling comes on the heels of a federal judge blocking the same regulations in Texas.
 
 
 
Good News 

• Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation requiring individuals to use facilities that correspond to their biological sex, not some imagined “gender identity.”

• Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed legislation allowing public school students to receive off-campus religious instruction.

• Governors Landry and Stitt also signed legislation rejecting the World Health Organization’s authority to impose any mandates in their states that contradict the Constitution or threaten state sovereignty.

• DePaul University fired a biology professor after she instructed students to write about the impact of “genocide in Gaza on human health and biology.” Her class was supposed to be about the biological basis for infectious diseases and how they are spread.

• John Bordieri, a Rhode Island chef dubbed the “calamari ninja” for his outfit in the virtual roll call of states during the 2020 Democrat National Convention, just endorsed Donald Trump.

•  Another country, Chile, has halted transgender procedures for children.