Trump rages in early hours at Indiana Republicans who defied redistricting plan he says he ‘wasn’t working very hard at’
President Donald Trump has lashed out in a late-night rage against the Indiana Republicans who voted against a redistricting plan that he supported.
The Indiana state Senate rejected a bill on Thursday that would have effectively eliminated the Hoosier State’s two Democratic districts. Twenty-one Republicans broke ranks and joined all 10 Democrats, resulting in a 31-19 vote.
“Republicans in the Indiana State Senate, who voted against a Majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social around 1:00 a.m. on Saturday.
“Headed by a total loser named Rod Bray, every one of these people should be ‘primaried,’” he added. “And I will be there to help! Indiana, which I won big, is the only state in the Union to do this!”
Bray, the state Senate President pro tempore, had previously warned that there was not enough support for the gerrymandering measure. This came even though Trump and his allies had spent months pressuring Indiana Republicans to pass the bill. Vice President JD Vance even traveled to Indianapolis in August to make the pitch in person.
But, when asked about the vote on Friday during a White House press briefing, Trump distanced himself, stating, “I wasn’t working on it very hard.”
“Would have been nice, I think we would have picked up two seats, if we did that,” he continued before attacking Bray.
“He’ll probably lose his next primary, whenever that is. I hope he does, because he’s done a tremendous disservice,” he said. “I’m sure he’ll go down.”
Shortly after the vote on Thursday, Vance also singled out Bray.
“Rod Bray, the Senate leader in Indiana, has consistently told us he wouldn’t fight redistricting while simultaneously whipping his members against it,” the vice president wrote on X. “That level of dishonesty cannot be rewarded, and the Indiana GOP needs to choose a side.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson moved to downplay the importance of the vote.
When asked by CNN on Friday whether it shows Trump is now a lame duck, Johnson said, “Not at all. No, he is not a lame duck. He’s the most powerful president of this generation and many others. We have a lot more work to do together. The outcome in Indiana is inconsequential to that.”
Some state lawmakers indicated that Trump’s pressure campaign — and the national attention it garnered — had backfired.
“You have to know Hoosiers,” Republican state Sen. Sue Glick told NBC News after voting against the gerrymandering bill. “We can’t be bullied, we don’t like it.”
