House Freedom Caucus: evolution of the best rebellious group to the allies of the White House

A small group of republican legislators who did not think that their leaders were pushing a sufficiently conservative program began to meet in secret a decade ago, huddling in small rooms inside and outside the American Capitol, while keeping their membership in fear of punishment by the high leaders of the Chamber.

Quick advance until Thursday morning, and House Freedom Caucus (HFC) welcomed its members, the best donors of the GOP, the Trump administration officials and even President Mike Johnson, R-La., In a room ornate inside Washington, DC’s Willard Hotel to mark its decade and its first annual political summit.

“It’s a big celebration and a birthday for them, and I want to be part of it,” Johnson told Fox News Digital just before speaking to the group. “Some of my closest friends are in this room.”

The Caucus that former president of the John Boehner Chamber, R-Ohio, formerly called “legislative terrorists”, is now at the center of the main republican policy fights in Washington. And although they are always a source of frustration for many GOP legislators – who find that the group disrupts the agenda of the Republicans – HFC is no longer hidden and in the ear of some of the most powerful people of DC

GOP legislators compete on the strategy to avoid the government closure

The House Freedom Caucus was at the center of several legislative fights in the congress this year. (Getty Images)

“It was never our goal, you know, but we wanted to have an impact,” said Fox News Digital of the Marlin Stutzman event, R-Ind., A founding member of HFC who left Congress and returned in 2025. “There is always a lot of agreement in the conference, like:” Oh yes, we would like to get there “, but sometimes you need to help it. Move a little further than you think you are able. “

And rather than being a thorn in the side of republican leaders, HFC tries to work hand in hand with President Donald Trump to put pressure on conservative policies.

They no longer go against the grain, told Fox News Digital, president of the House Freedom Caucus, Andy Harris, R-MD., Told Fox News Digital.

“We drive the grain,” he said. “We work with the president to advance his program in the most conservative way possible, and we have succeeded.”

The Tom Homan border tsar, who also addressed the event with the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought, told Fox News Digital that HFC was the key to advancing Trump’s border agenda.

“They are on the right side,” said Homan. “They want to secure the border because they know a safe border, a strong border, gives us strong national security … They want us to apply the laws.”

At the end of 2023, a group of HFC members was essential for having managed to repel a quarter of the room in the middle of the congression for the first time in American history.

The president of the Caucus of House Freedom, Andy Harris, opened the group of the group’s policies in Washington on Thursday, September 4, 2025. (Fox News Digital)

They also played important roles in the push of the bills of republican spending and the recent big and beautiful bill on the right – at least in the chamber.

Even in the midst of their two -day event on Thursday, some HFC members threatened to travel a spending bill led by the GOP as a warning to the leaders of the Chamber to keep a conservative path.

The approach has been considered a divisor for years, and this year is not different.

“They act as if they were the only conservatives in principle of the conference. It is almost as if they prefer to be in a minority,” a republican of the room told Fox News. “They like the attention they attract when they hold, but bend at the end. That is why nobody respects them.”

Another GOP legislator said, in the context of current talks to avoid a government closure, “the Caucus Freedom is not what it was two years ago or even four years ago. I don’t know how you call them, but Andy Harris speaks for himself.”

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“What is the goal of Caucus Freedom? Is it to win? Is it to fold?” They asked. “I mean, have they lost their teeth? From an external point of view, no, I always think they are heard.”

Current HFC members have rejected criticism.

“We are ready to negotiate with Donald Trump and the Senate to beat the Democrats with the most conservative bill as possible, so continue to assume that we are dead, and continue to write this NECRology, because we win,” Fox News Digital, President of HFC, Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News.

Harris said about criticism: “If the victory folds, I’m going to bend each time.”

Indeed, the group has the ear of the White House.

Former HFC president Scott Perry, R-P-P., Who made opening comments during a part of the summit exclusively considered by Fox News Digital, revealed that the aid of the White House had attended the recent group meeting with conservative senators.

“Last night, with representatives of the White House, we were asked:” What is the plan? “I am not exaggerating, it’s your Caucus Freedom, the” legislative terrorists “in the room where it happened,” Perry told the public.

The representative Chip Roy should be one of the best departures of the group at the end of the 119th congress. (Getty Images)

But the group should see high-level departures during the next term of the Congress: Roy presents himself for the Attorney General of Texas, and the representatives Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., And Byron Donalds, r-Fla., Are both of the governor, among others.

Roy told Fox News Digital of turnover: “We have had a conversation. We have things we want to do to help and ensure longevity. At the moment, we must make sure that good people run. We must make sure that we are continuing to develop the ranks of Caucus Freedom.”

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And the new members have reported that they are ready to fill the ranks of those left behind.

“Now that I am here, and it’s my third year, and I got comfortable with that, it gives me much more confidence to know what is the right way or what is the wrong way,” said representative Eric Burlison, R-MO., Whose HFC profile has increased in a short time in the congress. “And I think there are other members like me who are – while these guys are moving away, there are a lot of really talented members to enter their shoes.”