ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Speaker Kevin McCarthy arrived at an upscale resort here this week eager to use a Republican retreat to promote the party\u2019s policy agenda and achievements so far, working to paper over the divisions that nearly sank his bid for his job and talk about anything but former President Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always optimistic,\u201d a sunny Mr. McCarthy, dressed in a pair of trendy sneakers, jeans and a zip-up vest, told reporters of the prospect for resolving debt ceiling negotiations without an economy-crushing default. \u201cI went 15 rounds to get speaker!\u201d<\/p>\n
But it was not long before Mr. Trump came to dominate the proceedings. With the former president expected to be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, House Republicans rallied around him. They blasted the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, as a pawn of George Soros, a longtime boogeyman of the right, and they vowed to open a remarkable congressional investigation into his active criminal inquiry.<\/p>\n
It was the third year in a row that Mr. Trump has effectively taken over House Republicans\u2019 annual gathering, underscoring how central the former president has remained to his party\u2019s existence. Years after leaving office, Mr. Trump is still here, blotting out attempts to talk about any Republican agenda that does not involve him and making it all but impossible for the House G.O.P. to define itself as anything other than his frontline defenders.<\/p>\n
It was true two years ago, when House Republicans headed to Florida desperate to talk about anything but Mr. Trump, who only weeks before had been impeached for inciting a deadly insurrection at the Capitol.<\/p>\n
Instead, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, then the No. 3 Republican, made several statements firmly repudiating Mr. Trump, and the retreat\u2019s subtext was the ire of her fellow party leaders at her refusal to keep silent about the former president.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re sitting here at a retreat that\u2019s focused on policy, focused on the future of making America next-century, and you\u2019re talking about something else, you\u2019re not being productive,\u201d Mr. McCarthy said at a news conference that year. Weeks later, Ms. Cheney was swiftly ousted from her leadership position.<\/p>\n
It was true again last year, when the annual gathering unfolded only weeks before the start of House hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Republicans studiously avoided the subject, working to showcase their unity as they plotted winning back the majority in the House and predicted a red wave. They barely mentioned Mr. Trump\u2019s name and were pleased about it. Ms. Cheney did not attend. They were pleased about that, too.<\/p>\n
Now, Ms. Cheney no longer serves in Congress. Mr. McCarthy has risen to speaker of the House. The issues of election denialism and Mr. Trump\u2019s responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack are in the rearview mirror for most Republican lawmakers, who prefer to talk about impending fiscal fights on Capitol Hill and a \u201cParents\u2019 Bill of Rights\u201d they plan to bring to the floor in the coming days that could limit the rights of transgender students.<\/p>\n
At his news conference on Monday\u00a0in the hotel\u2019s \u201cCitrus Garden,\u201d where guests in gym clothes and terry cloth robes wandered about in the background, Mr. McCarthy kicked things off by talking about his early moves to roll back pandemic precautions at the Capitol, including ending proxy voting, and establish a select committee to investigate China.<\/p>\n
He appeared particularly proud of the camaraderie he said he had established with Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and minority leader. He stressed that he has gone out of his way to treat his counterpart the way he would have liked to be treated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he served as minority leader. On several occasions, he cited the economist Milton Friedman, the godfather of libertarian economic policies, a sign of the more ideas-driven discourse he planned for the three-day retreat.<\/p>\n
How Times reporters cover politics.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t a need that everything has to be partisan,\u201d Mr. McCarthy said.<\/p>\n Why had he not invited two prominent Florida Republicans, Mr. Trump or Gov. Ron DeSantis, to join the group?<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re issue retreats,\u201d he explained. \u201cI don\u2019t bring many people in to talk to us.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. McCarthy carefully avoided questions about whether he planned to endorse Mr. Trump, whom he has credited with helping him over the finish line in his quest to become speaker. But over the weekend, he issued a defiant tweet savaging Mr. Bragg\u2019s investigation, and as the retreat got underway, he authorized three of his committee chairmen to insert themselves into the ongoing inquiry, demanding that the prosecutor provide communications, documents and testimony.<\/p>\n If Mr. McCarthy had hoped to use the annual retreat to highlight issues like the economy, the border and the banking crisis, those plans were once again overshadowed by his relationship to Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n It is a position he and his conference have repeatedly chosen.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this myth that Republicans in Washington want to \u2018move on\u2019 from Trump,\u201d said Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former House G.O.P. oversight adviser. \u201cThey aren\u2019t hostages; they are volunteers. These retreats have become an exercise in futility for House Republicans because ultimately, they ignore their own political self-interest, double-down on a loser and end up underperforming in the election.\u201d<\/p>\n Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who was supposed to brief reporters about immigration and \u201csecuring America\u2019s border,\u201d was instead grilled about his extraordinary letter demanding documents and testimony from Mr. Bragg, whom he accused of \u201can unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Jordan noted that the previous Manhattan district attorney did not pursue a case against Mr. Trump. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd then what happened? President Trump announces he\u2019s running for re-election and \u2014 shazam! \u2014 now we\u2019re going to pursue it,\u201d Mr. Jordan said.<\/p>\n Despite Mr. Trump\u2019s provoking an attack on the Capitol and trying to block the peaceful transition of power to his successor, Mr. McCarthy has kept him close, even visiting him at Mar-a-Lago after the attack in an attempt to smooth over any divisions and seek his help in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n Even so, Mr. McCarthy said on Monday that one of the things he prized most about the United States was respect for the rule of law.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a leader, as the speaker of the House, if this shoe was on the other foot, I hope I would do the exact same thing \u2014 stand up and say it\u2019s wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to make the nation heal.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Republicans saw the expected indictment as just the moment to stand proudly with the former president.<\/p>\n \u201cI support President Trump,\u201d said Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, who until Monday had been loyal to both Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis. In explaining her decision to endorse Mr. Trump now, Ms. Luna said that Mr. Bragg was \u201ctrying to cook up charges outside of the statute of limitation against Trump\u201d and that \u201cthis is unheard-of, and Americans should see it for what it is: an abuse of power and fascist overreach of the justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, said she had spoken with Mr. Trump on Monday morning, explaining to him the actions the House investigative committees were taking against Mr. Bragg.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you\u2019ll see his poll numbers go up,\u201d she predicted. \u201cThis only strengthens President Trump moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n