--- title: President Trump Criticizes Freedom Caucus Ahead of Healthcare Vote description: President Trump called out the House Freedom Caucus on Twitter Friday morning for their opposition to the Republican healthcare plan. canonical: https://time.com/4712155/president-trump-freedom-caucus-healthcare/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-24T12:48:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:01:14.737Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Criticizes Freedom Caucus Ahead of Healthcare Vote og:description: President Trump called out the House Freedom Caucus on Twitter Friday morning for their opposition to the Republican healthcare plan. og:url: https://time.com/4712155/president-trump-freedom-caucus-healthcare/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt904ecfe593942005/6988bfb3fb4eac195a8913c4/donald-trump-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 032317_President Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Criticizes Freedom Caucus Ahead of Healthcare Vote twitter:description: President Trump called out the House Freedom Caucus on Twitter Friday morning for their opposition to the Republican healthcare plan. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt904ecfe593942005/6988bfb3fb4eac195a8913c4/donald-trump-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Criticizes Freedom Caucus Ahead of Health Care Vote > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 24, 2017 12:48 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus Executive Committee in the Cabinet Room at the White House March 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus Executive Committee in the Cabinet Room at the White House March 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 24, 2017 12:48 PM UTC President Trump pressured the hard-right House Freedom Caucus Friday morning over their likely opposition to the [Republican healthcare plan](http://time.com/4710478/obamacare-repeal-donald-trump-test/). “The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!” the president tweeted hours before the controversial bill is set for [a vote in the House](http://time.com/4712069/trump-healthcare-vote-republicans/). > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/845249587178819584) The Freedom Caucus [huddled Thursday night](http://time.com/4712026/ahca-house-freedom-caucus-health-care-repeal/) to discuss whether they could support the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare (which defunds Planned Parenthood, as Trump points out). The consensus out of the meeting was ‘no’: about 20 members of the group stand firmly in opposition to the bill, which, when combined with the moderates who oppose the plan, would be enough votes to sink it. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4712155/president-trump-freedom-caucus-healthcare/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4712155/president-trump-freedom-caucus-healthcare/"},"headline":"President Trump Criticizes Freedom Caucus Ahead of Health Care Vote","datePublished":"2017-03-24T12:48:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:01:14.737Z","description":"The Freedom Caucus huddled to discuss whether they could support the Republican plan","url":"https://time.com/4712155/president-trump-freedom-caucus-healthcare/","keywords":["Congress","White House","Healthcare","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt904ecfe593942005/6988bfb3fb4eac195a8913c4/donald-trump-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt904ecfe593942005/6988bfb3fb4eac195a8913c4/donald-trump-2017.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"032317_President Trump","caption":"President Trump Meets With Members Of The Congressional Black Caucus","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4712155/president-trump-freedom-caucus-healthcare/","name":"President Trump Criticizes Freedom Caucus Ahead of Health Care Vote"}}]}] ```