Gohmert suggests Priebus authored Trump Freedom Caucus tweet: report

House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Thursday speculated that the person behind President Trump’s tweet vowing to “fight” the conservative group was actually White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Trump tweeted early Thursday: “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, and Dems, in 2018!”

Members of the caucus were among those who last week helped sink the GOP plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, which Trump supported. Lawmakers quickly fired back at Trump, telling him to remember who his “real friends are.”

According to The Washington Examiner, Gohmert said he thinks the tweet was crafted by Priebus, not Trump. He also added that the tweet could hurt the relationship between the White House and the caucus in the future.

{mosads}”I hope the president will realize the friends his tweet condemns are actually the ones that stood by him and were very vociferous in defending him in October when all of the Republican elected leaders in the House were abandoning him,” Gohmert reportedly said.

“So, I hope he’ll remember and realize if he weakens and hurts those who stood with him when our leadership was coming after him, we may not be around to help him during future assaults, which I think could be at the bottom of some of the demonizing of conservatives in the House.”

Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said in an interview with the Examiner Thursday that he was “surprised” by Trump’s tweet.