President Donald Trump, in a pique of anger, said on social media in February that he was withdrawing his endorsement of Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Colorado) and handing it instead to a lesser-known primary challenger. Hurd, Trump said, “let me and our Country down” by breaking with him on tariff policies.
It was hardly the first time a GOP lawmaker had drawn Trump’s public wrath for crossing him. But what followed was highly unusual in today’s Republican Party: Within hours, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was on the phone with Hurd to hatch a plan to support the incumbent. Soon after, an army of lobbyists from tech, energy and other sectors, along with current and former lawmakers, urged the White House to reconsider what some viewed as a costly mistake heading into the midterm elections.
A few weeks later, Trump who rarely acknowledges a mistake, reversed course. Returning to social media, he said Hurd once again had his “Complete and Total Endorsement” and that he was offering Hurd’s primary challenger and her husband positions in his administration.
Hope Scheppelman, a critical care nurse who suspended her campaign at the request of Trump, will be a senior adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel decision that hasn’t been made public.
The episode illustrates how Trump’s impulse for political retaliation can undercut his party’s electoral interests — and that in some instances, at least, other Republicans are willing to second-guess his instincts.
Trump’s nod can alter the course of Republican primaries. Many party members both in Washington and Colorado argued that if Scheppelman became the party’s nominee, Democrats could prevail in the district at a time when Republicans are defending a razor-thin majority in the House. Hurd won his seat in the Republican-leaning district by five percentage points against Democrat Adam Frisch in 2024.
“Hope is way out of the mainstream of the 3rd District, and she would have been a terribly weak candidate,” said Dick Wadhams, a GOP strategist and former Colorado GOP chairman.
Scheppelman did not respond to multiple attempts for comment for this article.
“It is a terrible mistake to primary a member of your own party over a rather simple policy disagreement, in my view,” former congressman Charles Dent, who said he did not lobby the White House, but said he supports Hurd and was “pleased the president reversed himself.”
Trump has sought to punish Republicans who cross him since arriving in the White House in 2017. During his first term, he lobbed social media attacks against GOP senators who voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act, and he supported primary candidates running against House members who had voted to impeach him.
More recently, Trump has directed his ire toward Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), one of three remaining senators in the chamber who voted to convict Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Despite Cassidy’s support from Senate GOP leaders, Trump is backing Rep. Julia Letlow as a primary challenger to Cassidy for what’s considered a safe Republican seat.
Trump has also privately and openly attacked Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who faces a competitive general election, after she voted to limit the president’s use of military force in Venezuela.
Trump has also been teeing up threats for lawmakers of both parties who vote against the Save America Act, a sweeping voting bill that would require voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before registering to vote and to show photo identification when voting, among other provisions. Trump said in a social media post that anyone in the House or Senate unwilling to support the bill is “sick, demented, or deranged.”
Trump’s endorsement — or lack thereof — is often crucial in GOP primaries.
“It’s the most important endorsement,” Rep. Richard Hudson (R-North Carolina), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said. “Almost no other endorsement matters in the primaries.”
Hurd, a first-term congressman, first earned Trump’s ire after he led an effort in January with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) to overturn Trump’s veto of legislation related to water access in Colorado.
In February, Hurd was among six House Republicans who joined most Democrats in supporting a measure to rescind tariffs that Trump imposed on Canada last year. In withdrawing his endorsement of Hurd, Trump denounced him as a “RINO” — meaning “Republican in name only.”
In a separate social media post, Trump warned: “Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!”
Scheppelman, whom Trump endorsed over Hurd, is a former vice chair of the Colorado GOP who was ousted by party membership after backing an election denier over Hurd in his 2024 congressional primary. During the early stages of her congressional bid, Scheppelman drew further controversy when a Colorado Indian tribe criticized her for what it characterized as exploiting for political purposes an appearance at a “spiritual and cultural” tribal ceremony.
In announcing his support for Scheppelman, Trump called her “a distinguished Critical Care Nurse Practitioner, and a brave U.S. Navy Veteran, who knows the America First Policies required, and will do everything necessary to Defend our Country, Support our Military/Veterans, and Ensure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
House Republican leaders, with Johnson at the forefront, and with the encouragement of other members, moved quickly to defend Hurd, arguing that he was best positioned to prevail in November and House leadership should not break with its tradition of supporting sitting members. Among their initial asks of the White House: not to spend money on the race.
Johnson informed Trump that House Republican leaders would host an event for Hurd and received assurances that the president would not object, according to a senior adviser to the president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private conversations.
“The speaker advocated vigorously for Jeff who has been a great colleague and great member of the House Republican Conference,” said a leadership campaign aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Johnson and other top House GOP leaders — Majority Leader Steve Scalise (Louisiana), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Minnesota), Republican Conference Chair Lisa C. McClain (Michigan) and Hudson all attended the reception. Former and current lawmakers, and nearly four dozen lobbyists attended the event at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, where the suggested donation ranged from $500 to $5,000.
A senior Trump adviser argued that the president’s re-embrace of Hurd is a testament to his investment in the midterms and strong relationship with Johnson.
“He’s learned a lot through being involved in hundreds and hundreds of races and campaigns since then, as a close observer or participant,” said the adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. “It’s really just proof that this isn’t a president uninterested in the midterms but in fact one very attuned to them and the individual races, and one who is a close partner of the speaker and the House.”
Emily Davies contributed to this report.
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