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Ahead of the floor vote on the poorly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Republican leaders had one obvious goal: keep intraparty defections to an absolute minimum. As the dust settled, it was clear they’d succeeded, with only two GOP members — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio — joining a unanimous House Democratic conference in voting against the far-right reconciliation package.
Massie’s opposition was a near-certainty — he’s long criticized the bill as fiscally irresponsible — but Davidson’s vote was less expected. By way of an explanation, the Ohioan issued an online statement early Thursday morning that read in part, “While I love many things in the bill, promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending. Deficits do matter and this bill grows them now. The only Congress we can control is the one we’re in. Consequently, I cannot support this big deficit plan.”
Evidently, for the White House, that wasn’t good enough.
A reporter asked press secretary Karoline Leavitt, “You had two Republicans last night that voted against this bill, congressmen Massie and Davidson. Does the president think that they should be primaried?” Donald Trump’s chief spokesperson responded, “I believe he does, and I don’t think he likes to see grandstanders in Congress.”
She added the president “believes the Republican Party needs to be unified, and the vast majority of Republicans clearly are and are listening to the president.” Those who fail to “listen to the president,” evidently, should expect Trump to support primary campaigns against them.
As part of the same answer, Leavitt concluded, “The president’s approval rating is at an all-time high right now, and it’s because he knows how to deliver.” This was, of course, hilariously wrong, given that Trump’s approval rating is both underwater and nowhere near an “all-time high.”
Time will tell what becomes of this effort, and given recent history, the president probably shouldn’t get his hopes up. Not only have members like Massie persevered despite similar recent criticism, but there are related examples of Trump’s chest-thumping falling short: Ahead of the 2022 election cycle, for example, Trump called Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota a “RINO” (“Republican in Name Only”) before declaring, “He will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!”
Soon after, Thune won easily on Election Day 2022 (he ran unopposed), and the South Dakotan is now the Senate majority leader.
Or put another way, Massie and Davidson probably shouldn’t panic just yet about their electoral futures.
Yet the White House’s comment did tell us something notable about Trump’s perspective: The president is less interested in trying to persuade or convince members like Massie and Davidson, and more interested in threatening them. In Trump’s leadership model, the solution is to bark orders and to demand obedience.
It’s a recipe for generating fear, but not respect.