In March, GOP leadership discouraged its lawmakers from holding in-person town halls amid mounting backlash to the Trump administration.

Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin was the first Republican in the state to disobey this directive. After constituents held weekly protests outside his office urging him to hold an in-person event, Steil finally relented with what his office called a “listening session.”

After months of virtual-only town halls, there was lots of listening to do.

Steil entered the Elkhorn High School auditorium on Thursday to resounding boos and faced a raucous crowd for the duration of the 80-minute session, including fierce questions on his support of Trump’s agenda, as well as frequent interruptions, chants, and jeering.

Attendees were evidently fired up over Steil’s support of Trump’s budget, poised to tilt taxes in favor of the rich while tattering the social safety net. Steil defended his vote on the bill, which is also estimated to balloon the national debt by trillions of dollars. (When the lawmaker mentioned national debt as a pressing issue, one attendee interjected: “Thanks to you!”)

He also voiced his support of Trump’s controversial immigration policies—a topic that elicited “some of the loudest boos,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Rep. Bryan Steil in Elkhorn answering questions from a rowdy town hall crowd. Lots of folks asking about Wisconsinites losing access to healthcare, tariffs, federal cuts to medical research. @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/wdpOcBYbhI

More than one person in attendance referred to the Florida immigrant detention camp callously dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” as a concentration camp, which Steil objected to. A constituent noted that “the difference between a prison or a detention center and a concentration camp is due process.”

Steil also had to address Trump’s tariffs (which one attendee called “a terrible tax that’s going to be placed on the citizens of the United States”), as well as Trump’s push to all but abolish the Department of Education (“Education is best resolved at the local level,” Steil said).

Many questions Steil faced reflected a widespread perception that Steil is in Trump’s pocket. One attendee said, “Southeast Wisconsin has not been represented by you. President Trump seems to run Southeast Wisconsin through you.”

Another made similar remarks in the context of immigration. “What I see happening to our immigrant population embarrasses me—horrifies me,” she said. “You have not raised a voice to complain about it. Where do I see your leadership? I see no leadership—I see you following Trump 100 percent of the time.” In response to this latter question, Steil, ironically, “lauded Trump’s executive orders and deportations,” Wisconsin Public Radio reports.

At another point in the meeting, though, he insisted that he doesn’t “always line up” with GOP leadership.

He has somewhat of a point there, as holding the town hall at all certainly went against his party leadership’s advice.

While resolute on enacting the more destructive elements of the president’s agenda, at least Steil eventually proved willing to hear his constituents’ concerns face to face. It’s more than can be said for many other Republicans in Congress. As one of Steil’s critics in the crowd told him: “I applaud you for standing up here and taking it.”

The president still doesn’t have a clear explanation for his own recent claims about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking with reporters at the White House Thursday, Trump reiterated that he had thrown the child sex trafficker out of Mar-a-Lago after he learned that Epstein was grooming underage female employees, but failed to elaborate on his understanding of why Epstein had, in Trump’s words, “stolen” the young girls.

“At the time, did you know why he was taking those young women?” asked a journalist in the room.

“No, I didn’t know,” Trump said. “But no, I don’t know really why, but I said if he’s taken anybody from Mar-a-Lago, he’s hiring or whatever, I didn’t like it. We threw him out, we said we didn’t want him.

“I didn’t like it, that he was doing that,” Trump added.

Trump’s comments barely address his stumble aboard Air Force One earlier this week, when he admitted that he knew Virginia Giuffre—one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers—was one of the “stolen” girls. His remarks on Tuesday partially corroborated Giuffre’s account of being abducted in 2000 by Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, at Mar-a-Lago, where Giuffre worked at the time as a pool attendant.

Trump and his allies have alluded to multiple Epstein victims having come into the alleged sex trafficker’s orbit at Mar-a-Lago but only named one: Giuffre. She met Epstein at Mar-a-Lago in 2000—and Trump’s close friendship with Epstein continued for years after. If Trump really was furious, as he now claims, he certainly didn’t show it. Indeed, their friendship didn’t fracture until 2004, when the two found themselves competing for the same glitzy Palm Beach house—and Epstein remained a Mar-a-Lago member until 2007, only being kicked out after a reporter called about his status following a Florida sex crimes conviction.

Donald Trump is finally getting his wish to turn the White House into the gaudy resort he calls home by adding a $200 million ballroom. 

The White House announced that it would begin construction in September on a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that can seat 650 people. 

Yes, Trump........

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