The House Freedom Caucus' swing votes proved enough to kill the American Health Care Act — and President Donald Trump did not respond well.

Setting off a Twitter war, the president tweeted: "The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!"

Some Freedom Caucus members responded with dismay and disappointment.

"Freedom Caucus stood with u when others ran. Remember who your friends are. We're trying to help u succeed," Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, who in 2015 was one of nine founders of the group, which now numbers about three dozen Republicans, tweeted in reply.

Others have questioned the president's strong-arm tactics to gain support and suppress dissent. In a meeting with Freedom Caucus members in the week before the vote, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon reportedly scolded the legislators: "Guys, look. This is not a discussion. This is not a debate. You have no choice but to vote for this bill." And Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., told the Charleston Post and Courier that White House budget director Mick Mulvaney reluctantly delivered the following message to him: "The president asked me to look you square in the eyes and to say that he hoped you voted 'no' on this bill so he could run (a primary challenger) against you in 2018."

Political posturing aside, the Freedom Caucus members who voted against the health care bill did so for a simple reason: They felt that Obamacare's mandates, taxes and subsidies constituted an unwarranted intrusion on the free market and on Americans' health care decisions, but that the new bill did not meet the promises that they, like Trump, had made to repeal it and replace it with something better

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