Brooks: Trump’s Freedom Caucus Tweets ‘Amateur Hour, Another Kindergarten Mistake’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued President Trump’s tweets against the House Freedom Caucus were “amateur hour, another kindergarten mistake. First of all, he’s not going to do it. He’s not going to run people against somebody in two years. Second, if he did, it would be highly unlikely to be successful.”

Brooks stated, “The decision to send these tweets and to threaten people like [Representative] Mark Sanford (R-SC) and other members of the Freedom Caucus was amateur hour, another kindergarten mistake. First of all, he’s not going to do it. He’s not going to run people against somebody in two years. Second, if he did, it would be highly unlikely to be successful. Even Franklin Roosevelt, at the head of his popularity, he once tried to run against a local person, and lost, all the way, across the board, because people like their — they like their local member. And then, meanwhile, he — the Freedom Caucus guys are loving this today. They are the little guy standing up to — the little guy representing their district. And then their manhood has been called into question. So, they can’t back down now. So, I found it completely counterproductive.”

He later added, “[House Speaker Representative] Paul Ryan (R-WI), I respect a lot of his policies, but I do think he’s a bit locked in the 1980s intellectually. But the problem, the core problem here is still with Donald Trump. He doesn’t have a theory of what Trumpism is. And he does not have a strategy for converting his populist campaigning into some sort of legislative agenda.”

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