“If there is common ground that can be found to move the country forward, then great,” Spicer said. “I think so many of the president’s priority issues are issues that Ohio is dealing with and he wants to make sure he can continue to work with Governor Kasich so every American can benefit.”
Kasich, who did not endorse Trump during last year’s presidential election, has remained a critic of Trump’s since he was inaugurated as president last month.
From the inauguration to today, a look at @realDonaldTrump's first month in White House. https://t.co/9zy8vOLvbN pic.twitter.com/VUcy13sHYY
— Ohio_Politics (@Ohio_Politics) February 20, 2017
In a tweet, John Weaver, who is Kasich’s chief strategist, wrote that Kasich “respects office of the president and is happy to meet with Trump at the president’s repeated requests.”
In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Kasich called on Trump to personally reassure America’s NATO allies that “we all stand together in the Western Alliance.”
Kasich said while Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary James Mattis in Munich and Brussels this week say the administration stands with NATO, many allies point to Trump’s past description of the alliance as “obsolete.”
“The president's people have all said it, but, frankly, he needs to be heard in a more . . . clear way," Kasich said. "Because, despite all these people being here, I have been meeting with all these folks from all over the world. They say: ‘We're just not sure.’”
Earlier this month, allies of Kasich formed a non-profit organization which is likely to press for public policy ideas that differ from Trump’s.
(Randy Ludlow of the Columbus Dispatch contributed to this story.)
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