Trump Vows To Fight Conservative Lawmakers In Next Election

President Trump, frustrated at the conservative Congressmen who thwarted his health care bill, vowed to “fight them” in the midterm elections.

This is taken to mean that he will encourage primary opponents to run against them. That would presumably mean finding moderate Republicans–the sort that supported Paul Ryan’s health care plan–to run in hard-core Republican districts.

But what the political climate might be in 2018, when the midterm elections will be held, isn’t clear. Trump might need those conservatives, since moderates are unlikely to support him in the long run.

Conservatives put Trump in office. Do you think he needs to accomplish something conservative in order to keep their allegiance? Or will his grassroots supporters stay with him no matter what, even if he tacks to the moderate side?

Which faction of the Republican party are the RINOs (“Republican In Name Only”)?

Illustration of RINO by Spartan7W [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

From Philip Rucker and John Wagner, Trump: ‘We must fight’ hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus in 2018 midterm elections – The Washington Post:

President Trump effectively declared war Thursday on the House Freedom Caucus, the powerful group of hard-line conservative Republicans who blocked the health-care bill, vowing to “fight them” in the 2018 midterm elections.

In a morning tweet, Trump warned that the Freedom Caucus would “hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast.” He grouped its members, all of them Republican, with Democrats in calling for their political defeat — an extraordinary incitement of intraparty combat from a sitting president.

There are about three dozen members of the Freedom Caucus, and most of them were elected or reelected comfortably in solidly-Republican districts. With his tweet, Trump seemed to be encouraging primary challenges to each of them in next year’s elections. Asked to elaborate on Trump’s threat, the White House had no immediate comment.

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