President Trump on Thursday appeared to pick sides in this week’s intramural House GOP squabbling by saying Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney is “upset” over his foreign policy decisions.
“Liz Cheney is only upset because I have been actively getting our great and beautiful Country out of the ridiculous and costly Endless Wars,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “I am also making our so-called allies pay tens of billions of dollars in delinquent military costs. They must, at least, treat us fairly!!!”
Mr. Trump also shared a tweet from Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican, praising the president and another from Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in which Mr. Paul slammed Ms. Cheney.
Mr. Gaetz had called on Ms. Cheney to step down from her leadership post this week because, he said, she is not sufficiently supportive of Mr. Trump.
Tensions boiled over at a Tuesday conference meeting in which members confronted Ms. Cheney about her financial support for a primary challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican.
Ms. Cheney, Wyoming Republican, said Wednesday that she’s not going anywhere and that Republicans are unified in their effort to defeat the Democrats in the fall elections.
She estimated that she has voted with Mr. Trump about 97% of the time, though she acknowledged that they don’t always see eye-to-eye on foreign policy.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, one of Mr. Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill, stuck up for his lieutenant after the dust-up.
“We’re honored to have her as conference chair,” said Mr. McCarthy, California Republican.
In March, Mr. Trump had called for Mr. Massie to be thrown out of the Republican party for holding up quick passage of a coronavirus relief bill.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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