President Trump has upset some of his most strident supporters in the House Republican conference: the House Freedom Caucus.
Conservatives within the three-dozen member group are frustrated with the president for coming out against Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., in the 11th hour and endorsing Katie Arrington, his opponent, in Tuesday’s primary contest. Sanford, a popular member within the caucus, was taken down in large part due to anti-Trump statements he has made in the past, leaving members irked with the president’s involvement in a race where they believe he had no business weighing in.
“I’m disappointed. Mark Sanford’s a good man,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who said he did a call for Sanford on Monday. “I didn’t expect [the tweet] and I wish he hadn’t have done it. I disagree with it. I think Mark is a good member and a good friend, and I disagree with the fact that the president did a tweet, particularly at that last minute.”
To many, including Jordan, the tweet came out of left field. One Freedom Caucus source said that members were “pissed” about the last-minute weigh-in from the president.
Meanwhile, Sanford was back in Washington for votes Wednesday and declined on multiple occasions to discuss the result. When asked if he was surprised by the president’s tweet, he said it didn’t help matters.
“I wouldn’t say it made my night,” he said with a grin as he boarded an elevator.
The situation has made things uncomfortable for HFC members, many of whom were hesitant to weigh in on the result despite usually being press friendly. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the Freedom Caucus chairman and a close ally of the president, declined when asked multiple times to weigh in on the president’s tweet, offering only that he was “disappointed that [Sanford] lost.” Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, an outgoing member, Ted Yoho, R-Fla., and Justin Amash, R-Mich., all echoed Meadows and declined to comment.
“[I’m] a bit disappointed. Mark was a true conservative,” said Rep. Mark Schweikert, R-Ariz., who indicated Sanford was done in by “previous sins.”
Trump’s tweet came nearly three hours before the polls closed in South Carolina and said that Sanford had been “very unhelpful” to his agenda and is “nothing but trouble,” adding that he is “better off in Argentina” — a reference to Sanford’s six-day tryst in Argentina with his mistress nine years ago.
Immediately after the tweet appeared, Freedom Caucus members came to his aid. Meadows said that he was “very supportive” of Sanford, who he called a “thoughtful member” of Congress. Jordan also said he backed the former South Carolina governor. Amash, an off-and-on critic of Trump, was the most outspoken, saying that unlike Trump, Sanford has shown “humility” and “a desire to be a better man.”
While the group has been among the most strident in support of Trump, Sanford was, along with Amash, an exception and has been a critic of the president dating back to the 2016 campaign. Specifically, he criticized the president’s knowledge of the Constitution, sided with Democrats in calling for the president’s tax returns, and, more recently, called the president’s push to impose tariffs an “experiment with stupidity.”
Sanford’s loss is the latest example of Trump’s takeover of the GOP. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., was forced into a primary runoff last week largely due to withdrawing her endorsement of Trump after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape was released a month before the 2016 election.
Additionally, Corey Stewart, a Trump supporter who has dabbled with the “alt-right” in recent years, won the GOP Senate primary in Virginia Tuesday night.
