Sen. Joe Manchin, one of the senators who attended the meeting, said the group specifically discussed the Gang of Eight legislation. | Getty Democrats: Trump open to immigration reform, Ex-Im Bank

President Donald Trump and several key senators privately discussed immigration reform at the White House on Thursday — with one lawmaker recounting that Trump said he was open to the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” overhaul the Senate passed in 2013 but ultimately died in the House. A pair of Democrats also said Trump was supportive of fully reviving the Export-Import Bank, which is loathed by conservatives.

The White House immediately pushed back on the characterization of the immigration discussion, saying Trump merely signaled openness to a legislative plan should Congress put one together. But Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the senators who attended the meeting, said the group specifically discussed the Gang of Eight legislation.


“Basically, he said it has a lot of merit, let’s look at it,” Manchin said on Capitol Hill after he returned from the White House. “It was surprising basically on some of the things that he’s talked about. But he says we don’t have an immigration policy, which he’s correct.”

Manchin said Sen. Lamar Alexander raised the topic of immigration during the meeting, encouraging Trump to move forward on the issue. The Tennessee Republican voted for the Gang of Eight legislation in 2013, and an aide confirmed that Alexander did stress the importance of fixing immigration laws and that Trump “is in a unique position to help do that.”

White House officials said Trump stressed that he believed the Gang of Eight measure — which crafted a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants and overhauled every corner of the nation’s immigration system — was “amnesty” and that the president was “explicit” on that view, according to one official who attended the meeting.

“At one point in the meeting he specifically said that Gang of Eight was amnesty. So he made it very clear,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in response to Manchin’s readout of the meeting. “And then at the end as things were kind of breaking up, Sen. Manchin asked something about working on immigration, getting the team back together.”

“I think the president was like, ‘I would be glad to look at it,’” Spicer said. That was referring to a new plan the senators may present, but not the original Gang of Eight bill, he added.

Manchin, as well as Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), also said Trump committed to restoring the Export-Import Bank back to its full strength. The agency, which provides credit and loan guarantees to American exporters, currently cannot finance projects of more than $10 million because 3 of the 5 seats on its board are empty.

Heitkamp raised the issue during the private meeting by noting that the agency was basically not functioning because its board lacked a quorum. Conservatives have long reviled the export credit agency, arguing that it distorts the free-market system.

“Ex-Im Bank was big news, he wants to get that done. He said, ‘I’ve changed my mind completely on that. I’ve seen how it functions and what it can do and we can’t compete if we don’t have a functioning Ex-Im Bank,’” Manchin said, recounting Trump’s remarks. “Before, he thought it was different. So he’s changed and he’s 100 percent. He said, ‘you can tell everyone I said that.’”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Ex-Im. But in a statement, Heitkamp confirmed Manchin’s account. Trump gave somewhat mixed messages during the campaign on what he thought should become of the bank.

“It’s great news he agreed and said he would nominate someone to serve on the Ex-Im Bank Board very soon so the agency — which has been stalled for a year — can fully function and keep supporting American workers and small businesses, including many in North Dakota, just as it has done for more than 80 years,” Heitkamp said.

