Former President Donald Trump returned to Capitol Hill on Thursday for the first time since January 6, 2021. He was given a hero's welcome by a united Republican Party.

Trump had a busy day. He had a breakfast meeting with House Republicans and then he met with Senate Republicans for lunch. He also met with the Business Roundtable, a group that represents chief executive officers of some of the country’s biggest employers.

Democrats and their fellow travelers in the media were in meltdown mode. They are obsessed with Trump. Many made sure to let their feelings be known.

Reminding voters of the riot on January 6 is a top priority for Democrats. They have very little to run on for the election in November so they are running on abortion and January 6. 

“Today, the instigator of an insurrection is returning to the scene of the crime,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), the former House Speaker. “Donald Trump comes to Capitol Hill today with the same mission of dismantling our democracy. But make no mistake—Trump has already cemented his legacy of shame in our hallowed halls.”

San Fran Gran was the Speaker of the House on January 6, 2021, and she failed to call in the National Guard to protect the Capitol. Recently, a video clip previously undisclosed to the American public from a documentary Pelosi's daughter made on that day shows Pelosi admitting that she dropped the ball. She should sit this one out. 

Something that irritated cable channel show hosts on the non-Fox networks was the unity of Republicans. Those who have been in the Never Trump camp have now come back to endorse Trump or at least support working with him because his victory in November is looking pretty good right now. Senator McConnell reportedly had not spoken with Trump in four years, yet there he was, and afterward said all is good.

Many Republicans in Congress, in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attacks, might have agreed with Pelosi. But there was perhaps no greater sign of Trump’s comeback within his party than his encounter Thursday with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a trusted partner turned critic of the former president following Jan. 6.

That rift appeared behind them as McConnell showed up on Thursday, shaking hands and fist-bumping Trump. “We had a really positive meeting,” the Kentucky senator said. “He got a lot of standing ovations.”

The same was true with Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA). He voted to impeach Trump during the second impeachment, yet he has come back to supporting Trump. He was in the meeting with Trump. “The polls say he’s going to be our next president, so you’ve gotta work with him,” Cassidy said.

Nothing succeeds like success. Mitt Romney tried to pretend he wasn't going to join the other senators but he was there, too. It wouldn't have mattered if Romney was there or not - he's not running for re-election and will be gone in January. No one cares about his vanity virtue-signaling. 

Trump made clear that America and President Biden are being laughed at on the world stage. That was said while Biden was meeting with the G7 in Italy. 

“We’re a declining nation. We’re a nation that is being laughed at all over the world,” Trump declared after gathering with senators not far from the Capitol. “We’re going to turn it around, we’re going to turn it around fast. The polls are looking like they’re very strongly for us.”

Biden was in Italy trashing Republicans back home so a shot from Trump on Capitol Hill was fair game. Democrats stopped abiding by the common agreement that politics stop at the water's edge. It used to be that American presidents and other politicians showed national unity by not speaking ill about other politicians, especially those of the other party. Biden doesn't bother to do that. I think the last president to keep American politics in America was George W. Bush. 

Senate Republicans presented Trump with a birthday cake. His 78th birthday is today. Trump had nothing but positive things to say.

“This was a great meeting,” the former president said. “There’s tremendous unity in the Republican Party. We want to see borders. We want to see a strong military. We want to see money not wasted all over the world.”

The media was sad that Trump delivered his message at a press conference with about half of the Senate Republicans standing with him. He stayed on message and didn't take questions.

Look at this reporting by the Washington Post: 

There were no jabs or especially incendiary rhetoric. Trump talked about abortion — blaming GOP messaging on the issue for the party’s worse-than-expected 2022 midterms performance — energy policy and Iran, one person inside the lunch said. Exiting the lunch, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called it “pleasant.” There was surprise, the person at the lunch said, that Trump “behaved so well.”

Trump "behaved so well." Really? 

The usual suspects are disappointed that Trump's visit went so well. The Republican Party has united around Trump while Democrats are splintered in their support of Biden.

GOP members welcomed Trump to Capitol Hill yesterday with open arms:@WillieGeist: "You could go to a Taylor Swift concert this summer and see less giddiness about her from teenage girls than we saw from Republicans on Capitol Hill about Donald Trump." pic.twitter.com/ZlkikwniUq

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 14, 2024

Never Trumpers are still sore losers. 

.@SarahLongwell25 on Republicans welcoming Trump back to Capitol Hill:

“Members of Congress who purport to be devout Christians, to back the blue, to stand for the rule of law, they’re there to cheer Trump, who was morally and temperamentally responsible for the insurrection.” pic.twitter.com/dHOQHwNc96

— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) June 13, 2024

Irony, much? Biden is the most pro-abortion president ever. He consistently throws law enforcement under the bus and shows support for criminals - like George Floyd. Biden was sitting next to Floyd's brother at the White House early Juneteenth celebration. Do Never Trumpers really want to criticize Trump's temperament when Jo Biden is regularly an angry old man in his speeches? 

Late-night show hosts are trying to re-elect Biden and their attempts are pretty lame. Seth Meyers wanted to say that Biden is competent but Trump is not. That is the new attack on Trump - it's Trump who has dementia, not Biden. Yeah, really.  

"He’s the most powerful man in the world. He can take a joke," the liberal comedian continued. "As we made clear on this show repeatedly, there’s no equivalency between a competent 81-year-old who occasionally shows signs of age and a demented 77-year-old criminal who says dead people rigged the election and thinks electric boat batteries will lead to shark attacks."

The media and other Democrats are deliberately taking Trump quotes, and his jokes, out of context to make him look like he's losing mental acuity. The electric boat batteries bit was during a campaign rally as Trump spoke about the absurdity of the anti-fossil fuel people insisting that everything has to run on electric batteries, even boats.

Ana Navarro criticized Trump for calling out Democrats for attacking Christians. She went over the cliff a long time ago. 

'It's crazy for him to say Democrats are against religion at a time when we are led by Joe Biden, who, in my lifetime, is the most religious president I can recall," Navarro replied. "[Biden's] not a Christian conservative. He's an Irish Catholic church-going practicing Catholic."

This CNN host is surprised that politicians are politicians

Thursday on Capitol Hill: Mitch McConnell 🤝 Donald Trump

"You know how McConnell speaks about Donald Trump in private ... and yet, we saw what we saw yesterday," @kasie says.@elliotcwilliams, @ashleyrallison and @SarahLongwell25 join to discuss. pic.twitter.com/7j8FWG0iJn

— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) June 14, 2024

It's going to be a long five months for Democrats and their partners in the media. So far the road to re-election is going well for Trump. If it holds, the days after November 5 are going to be epic.