In an editorial board interview with the Washington Examiner hours after President Trump tweeted about the need to “fight” the House Freedom Caucus in 2018, its chairman, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., pinned disagreements with the executive branch on White House aides rather than the president himself.
“He’s got a number of advisers around him that are used to the way that Washington, D.C., does business,” Meadows told the Washington Examiner. “They are giving him advice based on what they’ve known has worked or not worked over the last two decades here in Washington, D.C. So, do I blame the president [for the failure of the American Health Care Act]? No.”
When pressed to name any specific advisers that he was talking about, Meadows just vaguely replied, “In general, I just say he’s not being well-served.”
Meadows brought up Trump’s advisers again later in the meeting, saying: “Campaigning one way and legislating another is a recipe for disaster. And we’re trying to keep our president from disaster because of the advice that he’s getting.”
And Trump’s tweet, blaming the Freedom Caucus for legislative woes and apparently calling for primary challenges in 2018 — Meadows pinned that specifically on White House aides: “The narrative is not surprising in the White House because some of his advisers are suggesting that there was consensus and that we pulled the rug out. Nothing could be farther from the truth.”
Who might Meadows be talking about? The most likely suspect would seem to be White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Priebus has known Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., for many years — Priebus was chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party before becoming Republican National Committee chairman — and is the Trump adviser most likely to pull the president toward the GOP establishment. Other major advisers, such as Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller, seem more likely to pull Trump rightward toward the Freedom Caucus.
Meadows on two occasions in the interview pointed out Trump’s popularity in his western North Carolina district, pointing to two massive rallies Trump held there. While most HFC members had larger margins of victory in their own district than Trump did, Meadows actually underperformed Trump in the 11th District by 1 percentage point.
Jason Russell is the contributors editor for the Washington Examiner.
