Lobbyist and former White House Political Director Matt Schlapp said Wednesday that Republican lawmakers targeted by President Donald Trump have often made themselves politically vulnerable before facing the president’s opposition, following Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s loss in his Republican House primary.
Schlapp argued that Republicans who openly broke with Trump or criticized him publicly often paid a political price within the GOP base.
“Most of these Republicans who Trump has targeted, they’ve been politically stupid,” Schlapp said.
“And maybe it’s conviction, as you talked about, but they’ve been politically stupid and they were vulnerable,” he added.
Massie, a longtime fiscal conservative and occasional Trump critic, lost his primary Tuesday after facing sustained attacks from Trump and his allies. Trump had endorsed Massie’s challenger and repeatedly criticized the congressman over policy disagreements and past comments.
Schlapp said some Republicans crossed a political line by publicly rebuking Trump after already weakening their standing with conservative voters.
“Then they publicly kind of chastised Trump and earned his opposition, and they went down,” Schlapp said.
The American Conservative Union chairman also pointed to Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“Well, let me just say up front, Cassidy also voted to convict at the impeachment,” Schlapp said. “Which was so stupid, that’s probably, politically, a death penalty offense with Trump.”
Schlapp dismissed the impeachment charges brought against Trump, arguing they would not withstand scrutiny.
“As we know, the charges for both of the impeachments, nobody would think that anything like that would stand up in a real court of law,” he said.
Schlapp also cited Republican primary races in Indiana involving state senators backed by Trump-aligned conservatives. He said some lawmakers had weakened themselves politically by failing to maintain stronger support among Republican voters.
“I looked at the CPAC ratings,” Schlapp said. “They were all kind of like high 70s, maybe got to 80.”
“You know, if you’re a C as a Republican, the base of your party is going to say, you can do better.”
Trump has continued to play a dominant role in Republican primaries, frequently endorsing challengers against GOP incumbents who have opposed him on key votes or publicly criticized him. His backing has remained influential with Republican primary voters as he seeks to consolidate control over the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
