Trump opens talk to GOP retreat with brag about his election win

President Donald Trump opened his talk to Republicans at the party’s retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday not with a discussion of upcoming policy priorities, but by relitigating the election he won more than two months ago.

“Nice to win,” Trump greeted his colleagues. “Do we agree? It's been a while. It's been a while since we had this position. Nice to win.”


Philadelphia, he noted, is where he attended college, as well as the “place where we launched our American independence.” But it is especially important, Trump reasoned, because of the state’s role in electing him president in November’s historic upset.

“Remember? ‘Pennsylvania cannot be won,’” Trump said, recalling his critics’ faulty expectation that Hillary Clinton would carry the state. “Remember? ‘Pennsylvania cannot be won.’ Right, congressman? ‘There is no path to victory for Trump in Pennsylvania.’ Except we won.”

Trump also reminded the Republicans that he had succeeded where others in the party had not in winning the state, which had voted blue in every presidential race since 1992.

“It has been a long time since you guys did this, but it was just a great victory,” Trump said, reminiscing. “It was a great evening. It was a great evening, I will tell you. But it sort of started in Pennsylvania. They all said that Pennsylvania was the bride that got away. That it was the state that everybody from the Republican Party that ran in Pennsylvania for 38 years thought they won, except they never won.”

The president claimed that he knew he had won the state before the results were called.

“I thought I won, too, but I was afraid to say it, Mitch, because it just seemed that it wasn't working out,” Trump added. “So I just said, you know, I think we did great, but let's see what happens. Great things happen. So we love this state and we'll see it many times again.”