Tea party Republican to challenge Trump

A second Republican announced Sunday he will run against President Donald Trump in the 2020 primaries. Joe Walsh, a former congressman from Illinois, joins former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, who declared his intention to seek the GOP nomination in February, to challenge the incumbent president from the right.

Who is Walsh? A tea party conservative and talk-radio host, he supported Trump in 2016 but in recent months has accused the president of diverging from true conservatism on fiscal issues and trade policy. In a New York Times column, he called the president “a racial arsonist who encourages bigotry and xenophobia to rouse his base.” Walsh has faced accusations of racism himself for past comments about Latinos, President Barack Obama, and the names of sports teams. During his announcement, Walsh apologized for those remarks and said his ability to admit when he is wrong distinguishes him from Trump.

Dig deeper: A recent Gallup poll showed the president with an approval rating as high as 90 percent among Republicans, likely making it difficult to topple him from the right.