The Club for Growth has publicly set aside its feud with Donald Trump, inviting him to speak at its annual economic retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.
The former president accepted the invitation, taking the stage on Friday evening to announce that he and the organization would work together as it becomes all but certain he will be the Republican nominee for president.
“Now we’re back in love; we’re in deep, deep love,” he said, according to remarks provided by a source in the room.
The Club for Growth, a deep-pocketed group that spends tens of millions to elect conservative candidates each cycle, had forged a close relationship with Trump during his four years in the White House.
But the relationship soured during the midterm elections, when he and the group’s president, David McIntosh, did not see eye to eye in a handful of races. It deteriorated further when a club-affiliated organization spent millions unsuccessfully attempting to challenge Trump’s third run for the White House.
Trump alluded to the races that “broke us up for about a year.”
“Every once in a while, we have an argument. It’s always about who to endorse,” he told the crowd at The Breakers Hotel.
That on-again, off-again relationship is now back on, however, with Trump poised to lock down the nomination in the coming weeks. Trump met with McIntosh for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month, according to Politico, and flew with the former president to South Carolina ahead of the Republican primary.
McIntosh released a statement following Trump’s speech, hailing the common ground they found on tax reform and deregulation during his term in office. He called the thawing in tensions about defeating President Joe Biden at the ballot in November.
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“We need to grow our majority in the House and reclaim the majority in the Senate. We need to restore the American dream, and the only way we can do that is by working together,” McIntosh said.
“President Trump always says, ‘When Trump and the Club for Growth PAC are together, we always win.’ And together, we are going to win back the White House and more this November,” he added.
