No member of the congressional Republican leadership appears to have attended the event. At least three times in the past three months, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has rebuked Trump's campaign for straying from conservatives principles.

AD

AD

Livingston, whose lobbying firm has raked in tens of millions of dollars since he left Congress in 1999, threw his support behind Trump despite a campaign that has been marked by a fervent anti-Washington tenor.

Some attendees even adopted Trump's slogans in describing what was about a 75-minute meeting.

“It was all about making America great again. We talked about jobs, the Supreme Court, we talked about national defense. The issues you would think, as maybe one of many meetings to come in the future, to unite our party, to defeat Hillary Clinton," said Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), one of seven members of Congress to endorse Trump.

AD

Trump avoided reporters by using the garage entrance to the law firm Jones Day, where his campaign counsel, Don McGahn is a partner. He left the meeting shortly after 2 p.m. to make his way to a news conference at the Old Post Office Pavilion, which is being reconstructed to become a Trump hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks from the White House.

AD

Gingrich, who has not formally endorsed Trump, entered and exited the meeting in a highly public fashion, using the firm's official front door, to assure he would be seen by the media. He did not answer any of the many questions shouted at him.

Livingston acknowledged that he had been supporting another of the presidential candidates until last week, when he said he grew angry about the effort by some Republicans to deny Trump the nomination if he comes up short of securing the simple majority needed to win on a first ballot at the GOP convention in Cleveland this summer.

AD

"I see a rump attack by others," he told reporters afterward. Livingston, who was nominated to succeed Gingrich as speaker in 1998 but resigned amid revelations about an extramarital affair, said he had switched to Trump because he has won the most states and the most votes and connected with voters in a way no other candidate has.

AD

“He’s been on the mark for the last, what, three-quarters of a year. Look, the guy’s a bright, charismatic guy, and the American people like him. That ought to say enough," he said.

A spokesman for DeMint said that he and other Heritage officials have met with many of the presidential contenders and, by law, the organization is forbidden from making political endorsements.

AD

Cotton and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) were the only senators to attend the event, according to Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), who has endorsed Trump for president. Sessions so far is the only senator to endorse the businessman, giving his support just before Trump won Alabama in a rout.

Neither senator spoke to the media about the event. Cotton's presence is of note because he has been aligned more closely with the traditional conservative wing of his party, particularly on national security matters.