President Donald Trump bashed Sen. Jeff Flake on Wednesday morning after swearing he would never mention Republican senators by name, according to Politico.
“Phoenix crowd last night was amazing—a packed house. I love the Great State of Arizona,” tweeted Trump the morning after he traveled to Phoenix for a rally. “Not a fan of Jeff Flake, weak on crime & border.”
Flake, a junior senator from Arizona, has been one of the Republican Party’s most vocal critics of Trump. During the 2016 election cycle, he refused to endorse Trump for president. Flake recently authored the book Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle, in which he brought up the idea that the GOP sacrificed its principles in order to regain control of the White House by supporting Trump.
Shortly after tweeting criticism of Flake, Trump also slammed mainstream media for unfairly covering his remarks on the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month.
The president traveled to Arizona on Tuesday to conduct a campaign-like rally. In addition to dressing down the media for what he perceived as poor coverage against him, Trump also threatened to shut down the government if it refuses to build his wall, though he made no mention of Mexico paying for it.
Politico reports that Trump met with several of Sen. Flake’s prospective Republican primary challengers, including state treasurer Jeff DeWitt and former state GOP chairman Robert Graham, prior to taking the stage.
Trump has reached out to other opponents of Flake in the past. He tweeted words of encouragement to former state senator Kelli Ward after Flake published his scathing book about Trump. Earlier this year, she announced her plan to challenge Flake during the midterm elections next year when his seat is at stake.
