Former Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., who once chaired the House Freedom Caucus, says the Republican Party he left Congress from is no longer conservative by any real measure — even as he maintains Democrats would be far worse if given power.
Good, who lost his 2024 GOP primary to a Trump-backed challenger, told Fox News Digital in an interview Friday that Republicans have been “Democrat-lite in their policies” for nearly two years. He said that despite holding majorities in both chambers of Congress for roughly 19 months under President Trump’s second term, the party has “massively squandered the opportunity that was given to them by the voters.”
“We’ve taken the debt to $40 trillion. We’ve added new entitlement programs like Trump accounts,” Good said, also criticizing what he described as the government “taking ownership stakes in private companies.” He added that Republicans “haven’t made the case for why we’re in a war that’s lasted over six months now.”
“The real emergency, the real crisis, is the debt crisis,” Good said.
Criticism of Trump’s approach to spending
Good argued that Trump himself does not treat the national debt as a serious priority. “I think he suspects that spending cuts and spending reforms aren’t particularly popular,” Good said. “And I think wants to be popular.”
The Republican National Committee pushed back sharply. RNC spokeswoman Emma Hall said in a statement, “President Trump and Republicans are delivering America First results every day — and it’s why we’ll defy history and win in November. No one is interested in advice from certified loser Bob Good.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the administration’s record, saying, “President Trump was given a resounding mandate by the American people to smash Washington, D.C.’s obsession with consensus orthodoxy that has let Americans down. The Trump administration is turning the page on Joe Biden’s economic disaster by implementing traditional free market policies that do work — like deregulation and tax cuts — while rectifying longtime America Last policies that have left Americans behind.”
Warning on midterm turnout
Good said turnout will be the “primary challenge” for Republicans heading into the midterm elections, arguing the party has leaned on a weak message of simply being less bad than the opposition.
“Keep the House cuz we’re not as bad as Democrats is not a truly inspirational motivating factor,” Good said.
He argued the party missed its chance to act boldly early in Trump’s term. “What they should have done in year one, in 2025, was to massively cut spending, massively shrink government, massively implement spending reforms, go for broke while they had the power before it was an election year, and then the American people I think would’ve rewarded them… with midterm victory,” he said.
Good said he still holds out hope for Republican success this cycle, citing favorable redistricting and what he called deeply unpopular Democratic policies and extreme candidates.
Still backing the GOP over Democrats
Despite his criticism, Good said “the Democrats are certainly worse” than Republicans overall. He praised Trump’s handling of border security, saying, “President Trump has done a lot of great things. President Trump immediately secured the border, to such degree, it’s not even talked about anymore.”
Good also pointed to Trump’s efforts on deregulation, tax cuts, and rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion policies in government and education as accomplishments he credits to the administration.
“Democrats would do none of those things,” Good said, adding that in every area “the Republicans have failed or been benign or weak or tepid or not followed through, Democrats would be even worse.”
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