Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has accepted an invitation from President-elect Donald Trump to meet with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.
“That is the plan. Yes, we are going to have a conversation,” Fetterman told CBS News about the upcoming meeting.
The trip will mark the first known time a sitting Democratic U.S. senator is meeting with Trump at his Palm Beach residence since the election.
“I think that one, he’s the president, or he will be officially,” Fetterman said. “And I think it’s pretty reasonable that if the president would like to have a conversation — or invite someone to have a conversation — to have it. And no one is my gatekeeper.”
Trump met with the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, last month to talk about the inauguration and his second term, her office said in a statement.
However, a transition official cautioned that plans could change and that the Fetterman meeting has not been finalized.
Fetterman was the first Democrat to sponsor the Laken Riley Act, which would compel the federal government to detain noncitizens convicted or charged with burglary, larceny, theft or shoplifting. A version of the legislation passed the House and is now before the Senate for consideration.
“We absolutely need to have a secure border, and I have always also been incredibly supportive and protective for Dreamers,” Fetterman told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
Trump also hopes Fetterman will support some of his nominees, including Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, a source said.
Trump won Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes in November, after losing the state to President Biden in 2020. Fetterman won his seat in 2022 and is up for reelection in 2028, when his home state is likely to be a presidential battleground yet again.
Trump campaigned against Fetterman in 2022, at one point falsely claiming that the then-lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania used illegal drugs including cocaine, heroin and fentanyl.
“I’ve been very clear that I have ongoing conversations with people that are going to have an impact on Pennsylvania and for the nation,” Fetterman said. “And I am a senator for Pennsylvania, not just for Democrats. I am a senator for everyone in Pennsylvania.”
Fetterman has proven to be open to some proposals Trump has floated, even though most Democrats have immediately dismissed them. When the president-elect proposed this week that the U.S. should control Greenland, Fetterman indicated it was an idea worth talking about.
“I have no idea what’s going to exactly come up. So, I mean, regardless of whatever comes up, that’s going to be part of the conversation,” Fetterman told CBS News.
Trump aides have also talked about meeting with some other Democratic members of Congress about the State and Local tax — or SALT — the tax deduction that allows taxpayers to deduct all or part of their state or local tax but is capped for individual taxpayers at $10,000.
Rep. Pat Ryan, a Democrat from New York, has urged Trump to include Democrats in talks on capping the federal deduction.
“If President-elect Trump is serious about removing the SALT cap and ending double taxation, he’s going to need bipartisan support,” Ryan said in a statement on Tuesday. “I’ll go to Mar-A-Lago myself if that’s what it takes.”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez
contributed to this report.
