Former House Speaker John Boehner made some very candid remarks Thursday to the Mackinac Policy Conference in Michigan regarding the current state of the Republican party and President Trump’s influence over it.
"There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party,” Boehner said. “The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
Boehner also opined on Trump’s policy accomplishments and the surprise at his presidential win while enjoying a Bloody Mary at the event.
"There is no Republican party. There’s a Trump party. Republican party is kinda taking a nap somewhere," former Speaker Boehner says. https://t.co/HstTNpDeEH pic.twitter.com/3m0Rxdi1Mn
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 31, 2018
He gave President Trump some credit for his accomplishments thus far.
“If you can peel away the noise and the tweets and all that, which is virtually impossible to do, but if you peel all this away,” he said, “from a Republican standpoint the things that he’s doing by and large are really good things.”
Boehner also commented that Trump was “clearly the most unusual person we’ve elected as president,” and admitted that his win came as a shock.
“Donald Trump, who I know well, was one of my supporters, when I was speaker [and] I was having a rough week, Trump would call me, pat me on the back, cheer me up, we played a lot of golf together,” Boehner remembered, “But president, really? Whoa, I never quite saw this. But the guy ran, the guy won.”
He speculated that Trump’s win came as a surprise to Melania as well.
“I think Donald Trump promised Melania that he would not win,” he said, “she didn’t have to worry about ever living in the White House. It’s probably why she doesn’t look real happy every day. Well, maybe one reason.”