WASHINGTON — President Trump declared war on the conservatives of the House Freedom Caucus on Thursday, suggesting Republicans should “fight them’’ in the 2018 midterm elections if they do not back his agenda.
“The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast,’’ Trump said Thursday morning on Twitter, escalating a fight that began when the conservatives from the caucus blocked his health care law repeal last Friday.
“We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!’’ Trump wrote, apparently making good on suggestions that he would support Republican challengers to lawmakers in his own party who oppose him, a stance advocated by his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon.
Friday’s loss on health care rekindled a long-running civil war between the party’s establishment, represented by Speaker Paul Ryan, who drafted the original bill, and anti-establishment conservatives in the caucus, who thought it preserved too many elements of the Obama-era program.
The post from Trump did not seem to have been impulsive: Bannon, who has counseled a tough tone with the rebels, has instructed his staff to more closely monitor the president’s Twitter messages to use them as leverage in negotiations.
Dan Scavino, an aide who controls Trump’s official White House Twitter account, recently moved into Bannon’s West Wing office, where he closely monitors social media activity by and about the president, according to two officials.
Minutes after Trump’s post, his Republican critics took to Twitter to respond, in Trump-ese: “it’s a swamp not a hot tub. We both came here to drain it. #SwampCare polls 17%. Sad!’’ wrote Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, who often sides with the caucus on votes.
“It didn’t take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump,’’ said Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, a member of the group who has emerged as one of Trump’s most caustic Republican critics. “No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment.’’
Michael Flynn Jr., a conservative activist — and son of Trump’s former national security adviser — went even further.
“Why is @realDonaldTrump siding w/ estab Repubs (which we know r closet Dems) and looney Dems like Pelosi and Schumer? NOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR,’’ he said on Twitter.
Over the past few days, Trump has lurched between battering and buttering up conservatives who killed his health care overhaul in an agenda-scuttling insurrection that imperils his plans for tax reform and a trillion-dollar infrastructure package.
On Wednesday — about 18 hours before Trump’s Twitter attack — senior officials from the White House invited two dozen leaders from conservative groups for a closed-door session to plot a path ahead.
Participants, who were instructed by the organizers of the event not to divulge details of the meeting, or even the groups attending, described the hourlong sit-down as a welcome, but long overdue, policy discussion. It included a candid, polite airing of complaints that they have been largely left out of the loop on major administration decision-making, according to attendees.
The meeting, put together by Trump’s conservative outreach director, Paul Teller, at the request of conservatives, included representatives of the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Limited Government, and Judicial Watch, all of whom were critical of some administration policies, including the health bill.
Thomas Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch — a conservative legal advocacy group that successfully sued the Obama administration for the release of Hillary Clinton’s State Department e-mails — made a pointed pitch for the release of all documents pertaining to the Russia controversy, according to people who attended the session in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.
He also asked Teller and other administration officials present to more rapidly approve bottled-up Freedom of Information requests about Russia and other topics — likening the foot-dragging on legally mandated disclosure to what he said was the Obama administration’s flouting of immigration laws.
Teller nodded, took notes, and was noncommittal, an activist in attendance said.
