President Donald Trump's aides are advising him to endorse or campaign for midterm candidates who have been loyal to him, according to news reports Tuesday.
"Loyalty is very important to him," one White House official told CNN on Tuesday, as Trump decides who to back in the fall elections.
Trump's team is "applying three broad questions to each incumbent Republican who seeks Trump's support," CNN disclosed.
These include whether the candidate backed Trump after the Indiana primary, whether the candidate supported his Trump's candidacy after the Republican National Convention and whether candidates backed the president after he won the White House in November 2016.
"Republicans who have criticized the president aren't necessarily crossed off" any possible list, the official told CNN, but the president's team is reviewing what a candidate might have said about Trump and is "weighing the context, tone and frequency of any jabs."
In Tuesday's California primary, for instance, Trump tweeted endorsements of two incumbents facing re-election bids, Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
However, Trump did not back embattled Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, whose primary challenger, Scott Baugh, is using his comments from March 2016 slamming Trump as a "mean, nasty SOB" in his campaign.
Still, the White House is being careful of Trump's endorsements, the officials told CNN, given the number of seats up for grabs in the House this election.
"At the end of the day, we want to keep the House majority as much as anyone, so we're going to do whatever it takes," the official said.
Many Republicans facing tough primary or general election contests have already approached the president for his support, one House aide told the cable network.
"I think a lot of these candidates, they recognize the power of a tweet, endorsement can have for them," the aide said. "If they have the opportunity, they do try to get in his ear, to get that support."
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