Donald Trump keeps shitting on Colorado Republicans (and they keep taking it)

From her red MAGA hat to her gold Trump sneakers, U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert is Colorado’s most visible cheerleader for President Donald Trump. But her undying loyalty has not been reciprocated lately.

Trump publicly bashed Boebert as “weak minded” and a “carpetbagger” on May 16, while calling for a candidate to challenge Boebert in the upcoming primary election. The wave of vitriol stemmed from Boebert campaigning for the re-election of Thomas Massie, a Republican Kentucky congressman and Trump critic.

“Anybody who can be that dumb deserves a good Primary fight!” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “Even though I long ago endorsed Boebert, if the right person came along, it would be my Honor to withdraw that Endorsement, and endorse a good and proper alternative. Just let me know, or announce your Candidacy, and I will be there for you!”

Boebert swallowed the attacks. Three days after the onslaught, Boebert celebrated “Trump is my President!” ahead of “Jesus is Lord!” in a post about her son’s high school graduation. The header of her X account still proudly displays a photo of Boebert and Trump side by side.

“Yes, I saw the President’s post. No, I’m not mad or offended,” Boebert said in an X post on May 16. “I knew the risks when I agreed to stand by my friend Thomas Massie. I was, and will be, America First, America Always, and MAGA. Onward.”

Trump’s de-endorsement holds little weight at this stage in the election: The deadline for candidates to register for the June primary has already passed. If a Trump-backed Republican wanted to challenge Boebert, they would have to run as an unaffiliated candidate and petition to be on the November ballot, a very unlikely path to victory.

But Trump’s condemnation of Boebert adds to a larger trend of the president quickly turning on fellow Republicans he perceives as betraying him. Like Boebert, most of Trump’s targets do not dare to push back, fearing the voter backlash from Trump supporters. Massie lost his primary election on May 19 to a challenger handpicked by Trump.

“Voting against Trump. You know what happens with that? It doesn’t work out well,” Trump told reporters on May 20.

Boebert seemingly tried to mitigate Trump’s inevitable outrage. When posting about her endorsement of Massie on May 15, she was careful to also emphasize her allegiance to Trump: “I support both of these men. I’ve worked with both to preserve freedom and liberty. And if that makes you angry, bless your heart.”

It did make Trump angry. The president had previously endorsed Boebert four times, but Boebert’s friendship with Massie was evidently the last straw. It compounded on her other recent moves, including signing a petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files over Trump’s objections and revealing that Trump allegedly blocked funds for a Colorado clean drinking water project as retaliation for keeping Tina Peters in prison.

Trump has similarly taken aim at nearly every GOP member of Colorado’s congressional delegation.

“Unlike RINO Jeff Hurd, HOPE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Hurd “is more interested in protecting Foreign Countries that have been ripping us off for decades than he is the United States of America.”

Hurd defended his tariff vote, though he did not name Trump in his response statement. In explaining his policy stance, Hurd pushed his objections onto an imaginary future president, rather than Trump: “If we normalize broad emergency trade powers today, we should expect that a future president — of either party — will rely on the same authority in ways many of us would strongly oppose.”

Just one month later, Trump took back his un-endorsement, once again asking his followers to vote for Hurd after it became clear that Hurd’s district was at risk of being flipped by Democrats. “The Democrat alternative is a DISASTER for our Country,” Trump wrote. “Therefore, I will be fully supporting Jeff’s Re-Election to the House of Representatives, giving him my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

Hurd immediately welcomed Trump’s backtrack with open arms, writing on X that he is “grateful for President Trump’s support” and that the two “share the same goals: securing the border, American energy dominance, and helping working families.”

In 2024, Trump slammed now-Congressman Jeff Crank, siding with former Colorado GOP chair Dave Williams in that Republican primary election.

“His opponent is Endorsed, and works closely with, Americans for Chinese Prosperity, a Charles Koch Disaster,” Trump wrote of Crank, referring to his work as the former state director of the conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, which supported Nikki Haley over Trump in the 2024 presidential primary. “Dave Williams has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”

Crank went on to defeat Williams in the primary and win the general election. Trump’s vocal criticisms of him didn’t dissuade Crank from falling in line behind the president, including defending Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland and refusing to sign a petition to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files.

Crank even abandoned his campaign promise to battle to keep the U.S. Space Command headquarters in his district. Instead, Crank framed Trump’s decision to move it to Alabama as positive for Colorado and the headquarters as a “small piece of pie” not worth fighting over.

Trump endorsed Crank for re-election in August.

Colorado’s only Republican congressmember who has seemingly avoided Trump’s wrath is Gabe Evans, which could be due to Evans’s unwavering loyalty to Trump’s agenda. The freshman congressman has backed the president on everything from the war in Iran to cutting Medicaid to cracking down on immigration.

Evans is considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the country going into the November election.