Donald Trump rebuffed offer to speak at House Republican mountain resort retreat after internal GOP turmoil led to low turnout: More than half the GOP members opted to SKIP event hosted by Speaker Mike Johnson as chaos continues

Former President Donald Trump rebuffed an offer to speak at the House GOP retreat in West Virginia, instead choosing to appear at a Florida court case related to his handling of classified documents. 

The former president joined more than 100 House Republicans who chose to skip out their annual retreat, where GOP leadership hopes to get its free-wheeling conference behind a united message after months of inner turmoil. 

Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Thursday he will impress upon members  the importance of 'stand[ing] together' as they discuss their strategy on the economy, border and foreign policy.

Trump rebuffed an offer to speak at the House GOP retreat in West Virginia , instead choosing to appear at a Florida court case related to his handling of classified documents

But the message from House GOP leadership at the conference was one of grievances, insistent that America is in a state of 'decline.' 

The only way to turn it around is to stop the fighting, so says the speaker. 

'Everyone says the next election cycle is the most important one of our lifetimes. We're all accustomed to saying that, we say it every election cycle. Everybody knows this one truly is,' Johnson said. 

'We have entire industries, sectors in the economy facing existential threats ... the world is a tinderbox right now, because our stature on the world stage has been diminished,' he went on. 'There are so many problems.'

'We have to stand together stick together. Get the job done,' said Johnson. I'm absolutely convinced if we do that. They're going to expand our house majority give us the Senate and the Republicans will take the White House as well and then we will all be in a much better mood next January because the agenda will change 180 degrees.'  

But a stay at the plush Greenbrier Resort in the Allegheny Mountains was not enough to entice more than half of House Republicans. 

A stay at the plush Greenbrier Resort in the Allegheny Mountains was not enough to entice more than half of House Republicans

The 710-room resort, steeped in history with the dated, gaudy decor to match, has hosted 28 presidents in addition to political retreats.

But five months after the deadline, the House has only passed half of its spending bills and has tabled work on supplemental aid for Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, FISA Section 702 reform and bipartisan border and immigration reform. 

'Why aren't we here [in DC] unifying on legislation instead of doing messaging conferences?' one GOP member told DailyMail.com.  

Less than 100 members will be attending the gathering, DailyMail.com has confirmed, with others choosing to head home for a long weekend or hit the campaign trail. 

'My guess is that traditional, commonsense Republicans have no interest in subjecting themselves to a pointless retreat when the clowns have overrun the circus and made Congress more dysfunctional than ever before,' one senior GOP aide who works for an office that will not be attending told DailyMail.com. 

Another senior GOP aide noted that many members are in the heat of primaries.

The former president joined more than 100 House Republicans who chose to skip out their annual retreat, where GOP leadership hopes to get its free-wheeling conference behind a united message after months of inner turmoil

The 710-room resort, steeped in history with the dated, gaudy decor to match, has hosted 28 presidents in addition to Republican retreats

Less than 100 members will be attending the GOP gathering, DailyMail.com has confirmed, with others choosing to head home for a long weekend or hit the campaign trail

'There are more important things to accomplish in the district,' the aide told DailyMail.com. 'We're united behind Speaker Johnson, but it's time to do the work back home to keep him as speaker.' 

Earlier this week House Republicans defied Trump when they voted resoundingly in favor of a bill that could potentially ban TikTok.

The legislation, which passed 352-65, would force Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated ByteDance to divest TikTok or else face a ban in the U.S. 

Trump had expressed concerns that banning TikTok would give more power to 'enemy of the people' Facebook. 

‘Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it,’ he said during an interview on CNBC. 'There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users, there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok.' 

When Trump was president, he attempted to wrest control of TikTok from ByteDance, but was blocked by U.S. courts.

Asked by DailyMail.com how she squares Trump's apparent opposition to the bill with its wide House GOP support, Trump-allied Stefanik claimed Republicans are aligned with the 'Trump administration' - which tried get ByteDance to divest shortly before turning power over to Joe Biden. 

'From a national security perspective, if you look at the Trump administration, they had a very strong position when it came to TikTok, when it came to banning Tiktok, in terms of it being a national security threat,' she said. 

'So it's squarely where President Trump is where his administration is, and I do think we need to go on offense on again, Facebook, Twitter, and these other outlets where there are major, major issues.'

Meanwhile Trump's Thursday hearing, in front of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, will center on interpretations of the Presidential Records Act. Trump's lawyers say it gave him the authority to designate documents as his personal property and keep them after leaving office. 

He stands accused of hoarding government files at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House and then obstructing efforts to recover them.