Your theory about funding is a canard. Yes, the Freedom Caucus members did get funding from those donors, but so did many other politicians—and much more money, to boot. SOP.
The Freedom Caucus saved us and President Trump, for that matter, from a steaming heaping pile of a bill that would have bit Republicans and Trump in the behind in ‘18 and ‘20.
Trump got bad advice, and Ryan blew it by allowing the bill to be drawn up in secrecy without input from Freedom Caucus and other key Republican groups. Ryan confounded this early error by not getting enough support before introducing the bill to the floor and trying to strongarm it. Ryan was doing business as usual for the uniparty/governing elites.
Precisely! Paul Ryan has received much more in funding from the Koch Bros. than all of the now 35 members of the Freedom Caucus combined.
I, for one, am tired of this “I’ll gladly give you real legislation tomorrow for concessions and votes today”. Trump threw in with the wrong guy on the wrong piece of legislation and, while he has to work with the Speaker, he doesn’t have to trust him. Like it or not, like any chief executive, Trump himself is responsible for the outcome of the AHCA “negotiations” and for what can only be called abject ignorance about the real issues surrounding Obamacare.
Furthermore, characterizing Freedom Caucus members as Trump haters - especially in the context of this issue, is an even greater distortion. No member of the Freedom Caucus has been as anti-Trump as Paul Ryan himself.
I’m with MilesVeritatis; the Freedom Caucus saved Trump from even greater, long-term embarrassment and if he’s the visionary leader we believe him to be, he’ll come to that realization soon.