John Fetterman makes unprecedented move to earn favor with Trump
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is crossing party lines to meet with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
That makes him the first Democrat in the Senate to make the trip to Florida to sit down with the 78-year-old since he won the presidential election.
“President Trump invited me to meet, and I accepted. I am the senator for all Pennsylvanians – not just Pennsylvania Democrats,” Fetterman, 55, said in a statement to DailyMail.com on Thursday.
“I’ve made it clear that no one is my gatekeeper,” he added of the meeting, which would take place at Mar-a-Lago.
“I will meet with anyone and have a conversation if it helps me reach Pennsylvania and the nation.”
Fetterman also wrote in a post on
Their meeting was first reported by CBS News as the lawmaker revealed he was willing to reach across the aisle after the president-elect won his state in the November election.
Asked about his visit to meet with Trump on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Fetterman joked: “I demand that I should be appointed Pope of Greenland” before saying it would be just a conversation.
Senator Fetterman (D-Penn.) confirmed he will meet with President-elect Donald Trump for a conversation as the Republican leader prepares to return to the White House
The Pennsylvania Democrat’s move is the latest in a series of actions that have drawn the ire of some liberals since he was elected to the Senate in 2022.
Earlier this week, Fetterman became a cosponsor of the Republican-led Laken Riley Act and voted for the bill in the Senate after it passed the House of Representatives.
The legislation introduced by Republicans expands the detention of immigrants convicted of crimes such as burglary and shoplifting.
Fetterman argued that if immigrants in the U.S. illegally commit crimes, detaining them should not be controversial.
But the bill also expands the powers of attorneys general who claim their states have been harmed by immigration policies to sue the federal government.
Some immigrant advocacy groups have warned it would give state officials veto power over federal immigration policy, create chaos over immigration cases in the court system and jeopardize due process.
But Fetterman is one of many Senate Democrats who support the bill.
President-elect Trump at the U.S. Capitol to meet with Senate Republicans on January 8, 2025
Fetterman has met with several Trump nominees for his administration in recent weeks
Earlier this week, Fetterman also said he would vote “yes” for Trump’s nominee for transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, after meeting with him in Washington.
Duffy is one of several nominees Fetterman has indicated he is willing to confirm. He even said he was willing to go to Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who was once his opponent in the brutal 2022 Senate race.
He also had breakfast with incoming freshman Republican Sen. Dave McCormick and his wife, also from Pennsylvania, further demonstrating his bipartisan spirit.
‘Great to break bread with @SenFettermanPA, Gisele and Dina to talk about where we can work together to best serve the PA – from stopping the spread of fentanyl to fighting anti-Semitism and supporting Israel, and providing the best services for the people of our commonwealth,” McCormick said in a message to X.
The senator has also drawn criticism from liberals for his willingness to meet with some of Trump’s other, more controversial Cabinet picks, including a sit-down with Trump’s controversial nominee for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Fetterman has pointed out that his job as a senator is to vet nominees and that means meeting with them.
For more than a year, the Pennsylvania Democrat has also battled the ire of progressives for his staunch support of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack while calling for the return of hostages taken by Hamas.
In 2022, Fetterman won the race for the Pennsylvania Senate with more than 51 percent of the vote, or more than 260,000 votes.
But Pennsylvania turned red in 2024 when Trump was elected into the presidential race with just over 50 percent of the vote, despite Fetterman campaigning heavily first for President Biden and then for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Senator Fetterman campaigns for Vice President Kamala Harris on October 14 in Erie, PA
Their meeting will be a far cry from the attacks from both sides during the campaign.
Trump was a leading critic of Fetterman when he campaigned for his opponent, Dr. Oz.
He even baselessly accused the then-Senate candidate and lieutenant governor of using drugs, calling him a “raging lunatic” and a “Marxist.”
Fetterman blasted Trump for lying about him during the midterm elections. In the 2024 election, he warned of the dangers of the Republican ticket while walking the campaign trail for Harris.