Alabama Senate candidate Tommy Tuberville

Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville did the one thing you can’t do in modern GOP politics this month when he loudly and repeatedly trashed Donald Trump. Tuberville, who is seeking the GOP nod to challenge Alabama Sen. Doug Jones told a local GOP gathering, “I’m pissed off at Donald Trump that our vets can’t get health care.”

Tuberville didn’t stop there. Instead, he continued, “And if I ever get to see him, I’m going to tell him that. ... That’s Donald Trump’s fault. That’s his fault. He’s got to get it done.” Tuberville, perhaps immediately realizing that he’d gone too far, continued by calling himself “a Donald Trump guy” and insisting that Trump has “had to fight every battle by himself” and that “[n]obody is standing up for him.”

It took very little time for another primary candidate, state Rep. Arnold Mooney, to jump on Tuberville and call him for him to apologize to Trump. Tuberville then tried to frame himself as the true Trump supporter and tweeted that Mooney was a “Never Trumper.” Tuberville used that same thread to insist, “My point is this: Donald Trump has done more for our Veterans and our military than any President we’ve ever had and he was dealt a big mess by Congress and Obama.”

It’s unlikely that criticism of Tuberville will remain confined to Twitter, and it may indeed have greater consequences for him. Back in late May, party fundraiser Perry Hooper told NBC that Trump had quizzed him about the GOP field at a White House meeting a few weeks before, and that Trump "specifically asked" him about Tuberville. Hooper further recounted that Trump "asked me about Coach Tub, and he asked if he was with me in 2016, and I told him he was," and speculated that Trump was open to endorsing Tuberville.

Trump hasn’t acted in the subsequent two months, though, and he may not be so eager to support a guy who just said he was “pissed off” at him.

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