The internet has had time to percolate and digest Donald Trump‘s Twitter attack on the Koch brothers this morning, and the reactions are too numerous to count and too varied to summarize. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see some of the best/worst reactions. So here they are! Of course, there were the burns. We all know why Trump is really attacking the Koch brothers. Their current net worth is over $50 billion. — Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) July 31, 2018 Trump vs. the Koch Brothers: most unsympathetic showdown ever? American politics is turning into an all-heel wrestling act. https://t.co/oR8V4JvcPK — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) July 31, 2018 The Koch brothers "love my tax and regulation cuts" is a very useful admission, coming from an alleged economic populist and scourge of the financial elite. https://t.co/nx4XH2Qxu2 — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 31, 2018 Fake Republican billionaire hates real Republican billionaires. https://t.co/Xi99xo0vc3 — Windsor Mann (@WindsorMann) July 31, 2018 Charles & David Koch have dedicated their lives to advancing freedom. They've also given billions to medical research, the arts, the environment, criminal justice reform, and poverty prevention. Billions. Donald Trump has dedicated his life to advancing Donald Trump. — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 31, 2018 4) Pretty sure that a bunch, if not the majority of, Koch businesses are US-based, not foreign. But even if that weren't true, they're still right about tariffs and your silly farm-country bailout that would have been avoidable if you hadn't kicked off a trade war in 1st place. — Liz Mair (@LizMair) July 31, 2018 Just as a reminder, Donnie, the Koch brothers net worth exceeds uours by an order of magnitude. They could buy and sell your broke ass with their pocket change. Now go look up "order of magnitude" and get outside and polish David's Land Rover, Biff. https://t.co/1R9wZim7uc — Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) July 31, 2018 I fondly remember the days Republicans blasted Harry Reid for publicly attacking two private citizens, Edward and Charles Koch. But as cults of personality dictate, they are now fair game for attacking. — Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) July 31, 2018 And the humor. I think Powerful Trade is when you buy a folding chair from Walmart and then smash it over the cashier's head. https://t.co/apMQXFFkx7 — Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) July 31, 2018 Here's more white on white rich man violence. When will the horror end?! https://t.co/fXgDYfN8W4 — (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) July 31, 2018 I hope the koch brothers buy fox news & replace the entire lineup with joe and mika — Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) July 31, 2018 The “makes you think”-ers. This morning alone, Trump has come out against the NRA, and showed the beginning stages of Koch Derangement Syndrome. He's basically that one progressive friend you don't talk to anymore. — Johnny Internet (@brodigan) July 31, 2018 "OK, Mr. President, you've turned against major-league football, Harley Davidson, and the families of war veterans. Who's next?" "The Kochs." "But Mr. President, they're on —" "GET MY PHONE" https://t.co/8vdpYDk6vU — Paul Wells (@InklessPW) July 31, 2018 Please, please, please, keep saying things like this! It would be AMAZING to see your base and @FoxNews turn on the Koch brothers! https://t.co/LFe9W2Zg6t — David Gorski, MD, PhD (@gorskon) July 31, 2018 Trump is the Dems dream organizer: Picks a fight with Koch, does parody of tax cuts for the rich, threatens a shutdown. Next thing he'll be snatching kids from parents and defending betrayal of country. Oh. Wait. — Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) July 31, 2018 Old enough to remember when the Koch brothers were bogeymen to the left. Time to update the paperbacks @kenvogel & @JaneMayerNYer https://t.co/AEwdCUJu8g — Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 31, 2018 3. The morning after proposing a new $100 billion tax cut for the rich, @realDonaldTrump tells the Koch Brothers on Twitter that he “made them richer!” https://t.co/KF3hUDi0kA — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 31, 2018 The mix… Three takeaways from this: 1. Message to all big money donors . . . Stop supporting us & we will try to destroy you! 2. The last part of his tweet was an arrogant admission that the tax cuts were indeed for the ultra wealthy! 3. Vulnerable @GOP will cringe at seeing this! ? https://t.co/DYEAwyUs2e — Proud Navy Veteran ?️? (@naretevduorp) July 31, 2018 *grumpy old socialist yells at greedy capitalists* https://t.co/RnERo5DMAs — Jordan Thomas (@WyoFire) July 31, 2018 The Kuck Brothers better check themselves before they wreck themselves & get with the @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse – punks. — Sam Nunberg (@NunbergSam) July 31, 2018 The inevitable… Kock brothers, more like cuck brothers amirite! ☺️? — Red Notabot Pillington ?? ?❌ (@1234flyingninja) July 31, 2018 The Kuck Brothers better check themselves before they wreck themselves & get with the @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse – punks. — Sam Nunberg (@NunbergSam) July 31, 2018 The SMH. 90% of the record money being raised by the RNC comes from small individual donors. The Koch Brothers are close to becoming politically irrelevant. https://t.co/fCrCATrCCQ — Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) July 31, 2018 Today’s interesting fact: First time Trump has used "globalist" in a tweet. https://t.co/6JJoryqSYd — Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) July 31, 2018 The official response. Response: “We support policies that help all people improve their lives. We look forward to working with anyone to do so.” – James Davis, Spokesman for the Koch Network https://t.co/HyrypqR7qs — Blake Burman (@BlakeBurman) July 31, 2018 The BEST response. Since January, Trump has pushed for tariffs and trade wars, is talking $12 billion in new aid to farmers, signed a $1.3 trillion omnibus, and the annual deficit’s approaching $1 trillion. And we’re surprised the Koch network isn’t staying on board?https://t.co/p5oLnaMC6W — Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) July 31, 2018 And the “well of course”… And the tweets keep on coming. Watch the clip above, courtesy of NEWS [Featured image via screengrab] — Follow Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) on Twitter Have a tip we should know? [email protected]<doc-sep>The Koch political network remains generally opposed to many Democratic policies and does not want to see leaders like Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, return to power if the Democrats triumph in the midterms. But those who know Mr. Koch’s thinking said that his criticism of Mr. Trump reflects the vast political and personal gulf between the two men. They also echo the widely held beliefs of many conservatives who worry that Mr. Trump is inflicting long-term damage on their cause, and on the country. Mr. Koch’s unease is a reflection of the wider discomfort and disorientation inside the Republican Party since Mr. Trump stormed the presidential primaries in 2016 and knocked out every candidate the Koch network had supported. Mr. Trump all but ran against elements of the Koch agenda in 2016, promising support for entitlements, infrastructure and the military. In some ways he has governed like a conventional pro-Koch Republican, especially with some of his cabinet picks like Scott Pruitt, his former chief at the Environmental Protection Agency. But his language on trade and immigration ran counter to the Kochs. And like some other right-leaning organizations and intellectuals, Mr. Koch and his organizations have struggled to find their place in a political party they barely recognize and whose political fortune is now wedded, for better or worse, to Mr. Trump’s. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Koch network has spent on politics in recent years, Mr. Koch has always been unnerved at seeing portrayals of himself as a Republican kingmaker, people close to him have said. And over the last few years the Koch brothers, two of the world’s wealthiest men, have tried to cultivate a worldly, civic-oriented image to counter the Democratic Party’s attacks on them as self-interested corporatist puppet masters. Koch Industries, the global energy conglomerate, also began a national marketing campaign to try to soften its image.<doc-sep>President Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked the billionaire Koch brothers, calling the businessmen and longtime conservative activists a “total joke” and “two nice guys with bad ideas.” “They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, I’m for American first and the American worker — a puppet for no one,” Trump tweeted. Trump’s criticisms come a day after Charles Koch told reporters that Trump’s trade policies would be “disastrous.” Meanwhile, the powerful Koch network of political donors said it would not back a Republican candidate in North Dakota who they view as insufficiently critical of Trump and his economic decisions. Charles and David Koch have poured millions of dollars into ads and advocacy over the years, typically for conservative candidates and causes. They backed Mitt Romney in 2012, but did not support either Trump nor his opponent, Hillary Clinton, in 2016. David has now retired from the group. But in a rare interview with reporters on the sidelines of donor conference Monday, Charles discussed his dismay over the Trump administration’s moves on trade, spending and immigration, including Trump’s use of protectionist economic policies, including tariffs. “Any protectionism at any level, certainly at a national level, is very detrimental,” Charles Koch told reporters at the event in Colorado Springs, Colo. “There are scientific and historical reasons. I mean, every nation that has prospered is one that didn’t engage in trade wars.” Charles Koch suggested that he would only back politicians who support a free trade, business-friendly agenda—even if that meant backing Democrats. That aligned with the announcement Monday by the Koch-backed group Americans for Prosperity that it would not back Republican Representative Kevin Cramer in North Dakota because of his support for a $1.3 trillion spending bill that increases funding for domestic and military programs, as well as his reticence in taking on the White House over tariffs. “If this were 2016, we likely would have gone ahead and endorsed,” Americans for Prosperity President Tim Philips told backers Monday, according to CNN. “But we’re raising the bar.” Trump’s policies on trade in particular have provoked ire among some Republicans, especially those in states most affected by retaliatory tariffs enacted by China, Canada, the European Union and beyond. The Trump administration announced last week a $12 billion spending plan to support farmers, particularly Midwestern soybean producers. On Monday, Freedom Partners, another Koch-backed organization, released an ad directly targeting farmers, asking them to reject Trump’s policies because farmers “want trade not aid.” Disclosure: Time Inc., TIME’s parent company, was acquired by Meredith Corp. in a deal partially financed by Koch Equity Development, a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc. Get our Politics Newsletter. The headlines out of Washington never seem to slow. Subscribe to The D.C. Brief to make sense of what matters most. Please enter a valid email address. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . 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Now that Kim Jong Un is his fast friend, President Trump has decided to pick a fight with some truly nefarious operators—the successful American businessmen and political donors Charles and David Koch. At least Mr. Trump and MSNBC now have something in common. Mr. Trump tweeted Tuesday that the two free-market evangelists “have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade. I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas.” The President’s former and once-again political strategist Steve Bannon piled on with a threat to Republicans on CNBC that if “you take Koch money, it’s going to be toxic. We are going to let people know that if you take Koch money there’s a punishment.” Potmac Watch Podcast Congratulations to the Kochs. They’re receiving such thermonuclear attention because they’ve decided not to bow to Mr. Trump on trade, immigration and other issues that the brothers and their political network count as crucial to economic liberty. Unlike many Republican candidates for office, they can afford to take a position independent of Mr. Trump. And they have the money and passion to have some influence. This is good for the country and the Republican Party. Mr. Trump overreacted as ever to reports of what can only be described as the mildest criticism from Charles Koch at a weekend gathering of Koch allies and operatives in Colorado. (David Koch recently retired.) Some on the scene criticized Mr. Trump’s trade agenda, although Charles Koch noted that the “divisiveness” coming from Washington began “long before Trump became President.” Mr. Trump may also still be sore that the Koch network was neutral in the 2016 presidential campaign, though it did help elect GOP majorities in the House and Senate. But he and Mr. Bannon seem especially peeved that this year these donors aren’t supporting Republicans who have turned protectionist on trade and nativist on immigration, or who support more government spending. In particular, they’ve been reluctant to support Kevin Cramer, a Trump favorite running for Senate in North Dakota. They’ve said nice things instead about Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp, who is running as a free trader opposed to the Trump tariffs that have punished the Farm Belt. They’re also cool on Lou Barletta, a Trumpian Republican running for Senate in Pennsylvania. Mr. Trump wants to remake the GOP in his policy image, and he’s having considerable success in primaries. The GOP rank-and-file like what Mr. Trump has accomplished, and so his tweets and endorsements carry weight. The problem comes in general elections when some of those Trumpian candidates have lost among a larger electorate. Recall that Roy Moore cost Republicans a Senate seat in Alabama, and Trump-endorsed Senate candidate Corey Stewart is a likely loser in Virginia in November. We’ll see how well the Bannon strategy of making the election a referendum on Donald Trump works this year. As for those “bad ideas” the Kochs have, they’re the reason for whatever governing success Mr. Trump has had so far. Pro-growth cuts in tax rates, deregulation and originalist judges have been the most successful parts of the Trump agenda. And they were Koch beliefs when Mr. Trump was still donating to Bill and Hillary Clinton. The President gets credit for winning the election and making the policies happen, but the Kochs also gave his agenda major support over the last two years. Contrast that success to Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda, which has gone nowhere in Congress; his ill-thought border enforcement that ended up in the debacle of family separation; and the tariff assault that has so far raised costs for U.S. consumers and producers without any compensating trade opening. Whose ideas are the “bad” ones? The GOP coalition is big and fractious, and it needs a robust debate unless it wants to become small and monolithic. The GOP has been a free-trade party for decades because trade has promoted prosperity for the most people most of the time. Pro-trade stalwarts shouldn’t roll over simply because Mr. Trump has resurrected some economic nostrums from the Hoover Presidency. Republicans who disagree with Mr. Trump need the donor and political support to do so. And the Kochs and other donors are right not to reflexively endorse Republicans who think they can trash pro-growth economic policies and still count on donations from the success of those policies. As for Mr. Trump, he ought to understand his real political opponents aren’t the Kochs.