Trump brushes off GOP town hall protesters as 'paid troublemakers'

President Trump Monday slammed disruptors at GOP town hall meetings as “paid troublemakers” attempting to politically hurt Republican congressional lawmakers.

“Paid ’troublemakers’ are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings. It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Some Republican lawmakers’ town halls have erupted in anger recently.  Rep. Keith Self of Texas and Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas faced attendees who raised their voices during separate meetings over the spending cuts now being made across the federal government by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, recently said in a cable news interview that Democratic “paid protesters” show up to many GOP town halls and fill the seats early to agitate the Republican lawmakers.

“This is an old playbook that they pulled out and ran,” Mr. Johnson told CNN. “The American people are behind what’s happening [with spending cuts]. The DOGE effort is polling over 80% right now. They want us to find efficiencies in the federal government. They want the government to be smaller and leaner and more accountable to the taxpayers.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York shot back at Mr. Trump by insisting the protests were real.

“We don’t need paid protestors,” he wrote Monday on social media. “The American people are with us.”

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis said the protest tactics are working and prompting Republicans to cancel town halls. However, GOP lawmakers who faced protesters in recent weeks have no plans to change their support for many of the cuts that the DOGE team is making.