Trump Turns on Boebert While Bennet Rules Out Polis Senate Appointment in Busy Week for Colorado Politics
Colorado’s Political Landscape Shifts on Two Fronts
Colorado dominated national political headlines this week as two significant developments unfolded nearly simultaneously: President Donald Trump publicly attacked longtime ally Rep. Lauren Boebert, and Democratic Senate candidate Michael Bennet declared he would not appoint Gov. Jared Polis to fill his Senate seat if elected governor.
Trump Attacks Boebert Over Massie Support
Trump lashed out at Boebert on Truth Social after she campaigned for Rep. Thomas Massie in the Kentucky Republican primary. Massie is a congressman Trump has repeatedly attacked, and Boebert’s decision to back him drew an immediate and pointed response from the president.
In his post, Trump called Boebert “weak-minded,” “dumb,” “foolish,” and “a carpetbagger.” He went further, signaling openness to withdrawing his endorsement of the Colorado congresswoman and backing a primary challenger — though the filing deadline for Colorado’s June 30 primaries has already passed, making such a threat largely moot in the near term.
Trump’s willingness to act on such threats carries some precedent. His effort to recruit a challenger against Massie himself yielded results this week when a Trump-backed candidate won the Kentucky primary. Whether a similar strategy could be deployed against Boebert — potentially through a write-in candidate in the general election — remains an open question, one that carries the risk of splitting the Republican vote in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.
Boebert responded to Trump’s broadside without apparent anger. “Yes, I saw the President’s post. No, I’m not mad or offended,” she wrote. “I knew the risks when I agreed to stand by my friend Thomas Massie.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene offered a different interpretation of Trump’s motivations, suggesting his recent attacks on Massie, Boebert, and others are connected to a discharge petition the four signed to force a vote releasing Epstein files. “Trump has come after us one by one ever since then,” Greene wrote on social media.
The episode reflects a recurring pattern in Trump’s political relationships: loyalty that runs in one direction, with a long list of former allies who discovered that even years of unwavering support offer limited protection against presidential displeasure. The situation bears watching in Colorado, where state political dynamics are already shifting heading into a contentious election cycle.
Bennet Closes the Door on Polis Senate Appointment
The second major development came when Sen. Michael Bennet, who is running for Colorado governor in the Democratic primary, told CNN he would not appoint Polis to the U.S. Senate if he wins the governorship. Bennet said Polis had personally called him days earlier to ask not to be considered for the position.
Bennet’s public statement was directly tied to his assessment of Polis’ recent commutation of Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted of election tampering. Peters, who was serving a nine-year sentence, is set to leave prison June 1 after serving approximately 17 months. Both Bennet and his primary opponent, Attorney General Phil Weiser, have condemned the commutation in strong terms.
Bennet called Polis’ decision “disqualifying” and pointed to a CNN fact-check that found the governor’s stated rationale for reducing Peters’ sentence to be misleading, including Polis’ claim that Peters’ conviction was unrelated to the 2020 election.
The Polis commutation has fueled talk among some Democratic state legislators of formally censuring the governor before he leaves office. Whether that movement gains traction remains unclear, though the political damage from the Peters decision appears to be accumulating. The Democratic gubernatorial primary has grown increasingly contentious in recent weeks, with the Polis controversy adding new dimensions to the Bennet-Weiser race.
Bennet’s announcement on the Senate seat has drawn some pushback from Weiser allies, who note that if Weiser wins the primary and then the governorship, the question of a Senate successor would be moot — Bennet would remain in the Senate. The criticism centers on whether Bennet’s declaration is a genuine statement of principle or a political maneuver.
What’s Next
Colorado’s June 30 primary will be a key test of where the state’s Democratic voters stand on the Polis-Peters controversy and which of the two gubernatorial candidates they trust to lead the party forward. On the Republican side, the fallout from Trump’s public break with Boebert is unlikely to resolve quickly, with the possibility of a general-election wild card still on the table depending on whether Trump opts to pursue a write-in challenger in the 4th District.