Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON — A word of warning before President Donald Trump decides to go after U.S. Rep. Justin Amash next year: It's been tried before and it didn't work out too well.

On Thursday morning, Trump, apparently still smarting from being forced last week to drop a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act in the face of conservative intransigence, went on Twitter to say his supporters "must fight" members of the so-called Freedom Caucus that opposed the bill, presumably drumming up opposition for them in next year's elections if they "don't get on the team & fast."

That would include Amash, a Republican from Cascade Township, who was clear in his refusal to back House Speaker Paul Ryan's plan to replace the 2010 Democratic-led health care reform law throughout recent weeks, saying its system of continuing subsidies and insurance requirements effectively made it "Obamacare 2.0."

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Amash — a fourth-term congressman who has never been a favorite of GOP leadership — even went further last week after Ryan was forced to abandon a vote he and Trump had predicted they would win, tweeting that the U.S. House, "is supposed to be a deliberative body where outcomes are discovered, not dictated."

If Trump is true to his word — and it's never easy to know how serious he is when he posts comments, since just last week he blamed Democrats, not the Freedom Caucus, for the health care loss — he could bring considerable pressure to bear on Amash.

As president, after all, he is effectively the leader of the Republican Party and the state and national apparatus would almost certainly follow his lead, potentially hurting Amash's fund-raising and get-out-the-vote efforts.

But if Trump does pick a fight with the 36-year-old Amash, he would be wise to remember that:

According to the progressive blog site Daily Kos' look at presidential returns in congressional districts, Trump beat Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Amash's Grand Rapids-centered turf by about 52%-42% — while Amash was doing far better, beating his own Democratic opponent Douglas Smith Jr. by 60%-38%.

Amash has run up against efforts by mainstream Republicans to oust him before, namely in 2014, when the state and U.S. chambers of commerce, as well as Right to Life of Michigan, came out against him largely because he refused to play ball with GOP leaders. They backed businessman Brian Ellis. Amash beat Ellis in the primary that year 57%-43%.

Since joining Congress in 2011, Amash has staked out the kind of independent role that Trump campaigned on in Michigan and elsewhere, refusing to go along with party leaders on numerous occasions — and siding with Democrats when it made sense to him, for instance on issues of government surveillance — and maintaining what has been a consistent stance on what government's responsibilities should be. And he puts it out there for everyone to see, explaining his votes on Facebook.

Amash isn't afraid of a fight: While other Republicans appeared to be putting off or ducking town hall meetings this winter, Amash was holding them, even with Obamacare supporters flooding in to criticize him. When U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, made an offensive remark saying that Western civilization can't be restored with "other people's babies," Amash, whose parents are immigrants, responded, "I'm an American no less than you are. I love our Constitution and traditions. Am I 'somebody else's' baby because my parents are immigrants?'" And when President-elect Trump called civil rights legend and Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia — who had criticized Trump — all talk and no action, Amash tweeted Trump, "Dude, just stop."

Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, was an early supporter of Amash and her family has put up more than $250,000 toward his election campaigns since his first race for Congress in 2010. So far, she hasn't criticized Amash despite the break with the president. Would she?

In 2014, another Republican congressman called Amash "Al Qaeda's best friend" for his stance to limit government surveillance. The congressman was Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the House Intelligence Committee chairman being called on to recuse himself from an investigation into whether the Trump campaign had contact with Russians when they were trying to influence the election after Nunes took information directly to Trump before giving it to the committee. Nunes also criticized Amash for not supporting a California water bill he wanted; Amash explained that he did so because the Constitution didn't allow Congress to set water policy for the states, even policy that Republicans wanted.

If the sitting president were to take on Amash and other incumbent Republican members of the Freedom Caucus — who, like most if not all Republicans in Congress have largely campaigned in recent years on repealing, not replacing, the Affordable Care Act — it would cause considerable waves throughout the party.

Neither Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel — who is the former Michigan party chair — nor current state party Chairman Ron Weiser had any comment on Trump's tweet.

Amash had plenty to say, though, via Twitter:

"It didn't take long for the swamp to drain @realDonaldTrump. No shame, Mr. President. Almost everyone succumbs to the D.C. Establishment," he wrote in response to Trump's tweet.

Contact Todd Spangler: 703-854-8947 or tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.