MAGA administration insiders are apparently livid after GOP Sen. Josh Hawley launched what has been received as possibly the first in a series of moves against JD Vance for a shot at the presidency in 2028.
Hawley has launched a new anti-abortion rights group called Love Life Initiative, which Axios reports could be a starting point for challenging Vance.
“Clearly, Senator [Josh] Hawley and his political team learned nothing from the 2022 elections, when the SCOTUS abortion ruling resuscitated the Democrats in the midterms,” one adviser to President Donald Trump told Axios Monday.
“Picking a fight on an issue like abortion in a midterm is the height of asinine stupidity,” a second said.
Both sources said Hawley’s move likely comes as he looks to position himself as a possible alternative to Vance, also an avowed pro-lifer, in a future race for the GOP nomination.
Trump’s confidants at the White House were also reportedly in the dark about Hawley’s plans to launch his Love Life Initiative, which they first heard of when Axios reported about the initiative last week.
Hawley, along with firebrand Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and arch-libertarian Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, is among three non-White House frontrunners apparently eyeing a bid for a shot at the presidency come the 2028 party primary.
His new initiative, Axios reports, will seek to back ballot measures against abortion rights at the state level as well as funding TV advertising spots, potentially ahead of such high-profile events as February’s Super Bowl.
The president, according to Axios, has little time for the issue, setting him at odds with more traditionalist members of his party—among them Vance.
His advisers reportedly view this as prudent, given a Gallup poll last year indicated just over half of American voters identify as “pro-choice” against just 43 percent opposed.
At a time when the party needs to be more focused on “aggressive action focused on positive gains in the economy,” Trump’s aides are furious that Hawley now appears to have ignited what they view as a dead issue, given that affordability “alone will be the driving force behind the next election.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House, along with Vance and Hawley’s representatives, for comment on this story.
