Day 70: Donald Trump Picks Another Unwinnable Fight
Trump calls out group of Republicans who he needs to get anything done.
In the past, Donald Trump has been more like Donald Quixote tilting at windmills. He has fought fruitless battles against intelligence communities and the free press.
Today, he turned toward the House Freedom Caucus.
His ire is primarily directed at the caucus for their failure to support the ill-conceived American Health Care Act. AHCA died because it couldn’t garner enough Republican support to put it to a vote.
The House Freedom Caucus is a group of very conservative Republicans that agree to vote as a bloc as long as 80 percent of the three dozen or so member group supports a position. This makes them quite powerful since that group’s failure to support a bill — if joined by the Democrats — is enough to sink it. (If less than 80 percent support a position, the individual members vote however they desire.)
This interestingly puts Democrats and the caucus voting the same way on many issues: Democrats won’t support some bills because they are too far to the right, and the caucus may not support those same bills because they are too far to the left.
Trump attacking the group is unlikely to help. Whether one agrees with their policies or not, the caucus tends to be steadfast in many of their beliefs, with their mission statement claiming, in part, “We support open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans.”
Members of the caucus, such as Justin Amash (R-MI) are already fighting back at Trump.
Trump tried to cozy up to the caucus by moving AHCA farther to the right. This alienated many of the more moderate Republicans in purple districts and still didn’t appease the caucus.
While intimidating individual members of Congress by calling them out by name at a meeting, tweeting about them, or holding rallies in their district may work for Trump, it’s much tougher to accomplish this goal attacking a group. This is especially true for a group that largely can stop any piece of legislation it wants and understands the breadth of its power. The caucus doesn’t disclose an official list of its members, so Trump is essentially calling out a group of people who its constituents will have an even tougher time pressuring.
Trump has a real problem on his hands with the House Freedom Caucus. Publicly pressuring them is more likely to backfire spectacularly than be successful in getting them to capitulate to his every word.
70 days in, 1392 to go
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