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President-elect Donald Trump will host Republican lawmakers from three powerful blue states at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday. But there may be one conspicuous absence.
Rep. David Valadao did not get an invitation to dinner with Trump that was extended to House Republicans in the California, New Jersey, and New York delegations, two people familiar with the planning told Semafor. Valadao, who won a tough reelection bid in his swing San Joaquin Valley district last fall, is one of two House Republicans still in office who voted to impeach Trump in 2021.
While Valadao’s presence could eventually be requested, it wouldn’t be the first time he and Trump intentionally miss each other. Valadao did not attend a June meeting Trump held in Washington with House Republicans.
Neither Valadao nor his office responded to requests for comment on his plans this weekend, and a source familiar with the Trump team’s planning said only that all three states’ delegations will be well-represented.
Trump will be hosting separate groups of House Republicans in Florida as he prepares to take office with ambitious plans to steer border security and tax cut legislation through the closely divided chamber.
The Mar-a-Lago meeting with New York, New Jersey and California Republicans could prove particularly challenging, for reasons beyond Valadao’s presence. GOP lawmakers from the three states, which swung notably toward Trump’s party in 2024, want to see a commitment from the incoming administration to ease or end his first-term cap on state and local tax deductions as part of the forthcoming tax debate.
Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., a leader of the cap-focused group of Republican lawmakers known in the Capitol as the “SALT Caucus,” said that Trump himself “has said numerous times out loud, we need a fix on SALT.”
LaLota added that “we can’t lose any House Republicans” on a tax bill given the party’s thin margin of control.
Another SALT Caucus leader, New York Rep. Mike Lawler, told reporters Tuesday that “I’ve been very clear from the start: I will not support a tax bill that does not lift the cap on SALT.”
Among the possibilities under discussion are raising the $10,000 state and local deduction cap, eliminating the marriage penalty and imposing an income cap on the deduction to ensure its use is limited to working-class taxpayers, according to Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., who sits on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
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There’s far more to discuss during the Mar-a-Lago meeting than state and local taxes — including New York City’s new congestion pricing charges and broader environmental permitting questions. The mounting devastation from this week’s Los Angeles wildfires adds still more to the agenda.
Despite critics who include fellow Democrats like New Jersey gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Josh Gottheimer, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul launched congestion pricing tolls on Sunday. Republican lawmakers argue that, because the Federal Highway Administration fast-tracked the policy without a full environmental review, the Trump administration could overturn the decision.
“I fundamentally believe he has the legal authority. to revoke the approval,” Lawler told Semafor.
It’s unclear if Trump is willing to revoke the toll plan. Last year, he threatened to kill congestion pricing in the first week of his presidency. But he stopped short of making such declarations in a later interview with the New York Post.
“I spoke with him about congestion pricing last week, and I’ll bring it up again this weekend. He doesn’t like it. We’re going to see what we can do,” Malliotakis told Semafor.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., is also appealing to Trump to reverse the congestion pricing plan.
The View From Rep. Jeff Van Drew
Trump’s team could reverse the Biden administration’s pro-congestion pricing stance in court challenges to the New York City plan, where opponents have made an argument similar to GOP members. A full revocation of the tolls, however, strikes some tri-state area lawmakers as a long shot.
“To be honest with you, that’s one I wouldn’t hold my breath on, but I agree with them. It’s wrong,’ Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., told Semafor when asked about repealing congestion pricing.
For his part, Van Drew plans to use the Mar-a-Lago meeting to reemphasize his concerns about wind turbines. He said Trump asked him to write an executive order that would halt specific potential projects until environmental effects and electrical costs are considered.
“I’m not anti-any renewable — for example, solar panels, we subsidize them too — but at least they lower the ratepayer’s cost,” Van Drew told Semafor.
Kadia’s view
Trump spent a notable amount of time campaigning in New York, which hasn’t voted for a Republican president since Ronald Reagan. He rallied in New York’s suburbs on Long Island and in the Bronx, ending his campaign at Madison Square Garden.
Along the way, he’s made promises — on the state and local tax deduction, but plenty of other tax topics too — that could further swell the price tag of the party-line tax and border bill that Republicans are haggling over.
The question ahead of this weekend’s meeting, then: Who, and what, gets prioritized? For blue-state Republicans, it may come down to accepting less than what they want on state and local taxes … and perhaps seeking other local gains in return.