Trump joins pile-on against senior Republican Liz Cheney over ‘endless wars’

President claims: 'Liz Cheney is only upset because I have been actively getting our great and beautiful Country out of the ridiculous and costly Endless Wars'

Donald Trump has attacked Rep. Liz Cheney (R—Wy) as Republicans continued to mount criticism against the conservative lawmaker’s recent comments condemning the president over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Liz Cheney is only upset because I have been actively getting our great and beautiful Country out of the ridiculous and costly Endless Wars,” the president wrote in a tweet on Thursday morning. “I am also making our so-called allies pay tens of billions of dollars in delinquent military costs.”

He added: “They must, at least, treat us fairly!!!”

In a Republican Party that appears to demand total loyalty to the president, Ms Cheney — who has voted 97 percent of the time in support of the president’s agenda — and her criticism had gone too far according to many GOP insiders.

Ms Cheney, the House Republican Conference Chair, has expressed her support for the nation’s leading infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci amid a reported attempt by the administration to undermine his work on the White House coronavirus task force.

She has also pushed back against the Trump administration’s assertion it can reopen state and local economies during an outbreak of Covid-19, which has seen a massive resurgence across the country.

At a House GOP meeting this week, Ms Cheney was reportedly met with outspoken opposition to her recent comments from the president’s close allies on Capitol Hill, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R—Fl), who called on the lawmaker to “step down or be removed” from her top position in the party.

Ms Cheney defended her position to reporters shortly after the meeting, saying in a statement: “I think the beauty of our system, and frankly the magnificence of this country and one of the things that the founders fought for, and that so many throughout history have died for, is our freedom of speech and the right for all of us to have this kind of healthy exchange and debate.”

Reports have suggested Ms Cheney was hoping to take on a larger role in shaping the Republican Party after Mr Trump if he were to lose in the 2020 presidential elections against former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

And yet Ms Cheney insisted she was in agreement with Republicans on securing another term for Mr Trump in the White House, noting how she often votes in-line with the president.

“On our side of the aisle, it’s a healthy thing for us to have those kinds of debates and discussions,” she told Fox News. “I’m sure we’ll have more as things go along, but, the fundamental point here is that we’re unified in making sure that President Trump is reelected in November, that Nancy Pelosi is no longer speaker, that we take back the majority in the House and that we ensure that we hold the majority in the Senate.”