Fresh off multiple Trump critics losing in the Republican primaries, the president is reportedly drawing his next GOP target list for the 2028 elections.
It could include Rep. Lauren Boebert, who clashed with the president over releasing the Epstein files, and Sen. Rand Paul, who has challenged the president’s unilateral war effort in Iran, Axios reports.
Over the weekend, President Trump openly called for someone to challenge the Colorado congresswoman, who angered the president by campaigning for Rep. Thomas Massie, a rare GOP critic of Trump in the House and another key leader in the Epstein files push.
“Is anyone interested in running against Weak Minded Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District?” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
“I knew the risks when I agreed to stand by my friend Thomas Massie,” Boebert wrote on X in response, adding that she was not “mad or offended.”
“I was, and will be, America First, America Always, and MAGA.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump’s allies have been clear that critics of the president could face the Republican’s wrath down the line, even though he’s terming out in 2028.
“Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power,” White House communications director Steven Cheung wrote on X on Tuesday, as Massie and fellow part-time Trump critic Sen. Bill Cassidy lost in their primaries. “F*** around, find out.”
Even Republican stalwarts can quickly find themselves on the outs with Trump — just ask former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned in January after a brutal public feud with the president — but the president’s revenge tour has its downsides.
The Republican Party only has a three-vote edge in the Senate, and President Trump may have imperiled that this election season thanks to Cassidy’s impending exit, the president’s decision to endorse a challenger to GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, and the increasingly emboldened Sen. Thom Tillis, who is retiring after repeated clashes with Trump.
Looking forward, the most brutal 2028 contest in the party is likely for the presidential nomination.
Unless Trump indulges his fantasy of running for an illegal third term, a 2028 presidential primary will likely pit Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio against each other, and Trump seems to enjoy openly speculating about which of his successors will claim the spot.
Whatever happens in 2028, Democrats remain projected to retake the House this year, given the usual mid-administration decline in seats, plus Trump’s increasingly unpopular status and voter anger over rising prices and the war with Iran.
