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The old kingmaker magic is gone
Trump’s endorsement used to be the final word in primaries. But no longer.
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“If I endorse a person, they win,” President Trump claimed last year. “With the Republican Party, it’s like 399-0. Think of that.”
As usual, Trump was lying. He lost himself in 2020, and when he endorses other people they often lose too. That’s been especially true of late.
Last week, for example, his pick for governor of extremely conservative Wyoming, Megan Degenfelder, lost by a brutal 15 points to a resolutely un-Trumpy candidate who rejected personal smears and attacks.
Earlier in the month, election denier and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell ran for Minnesota governor on a platform of the big lie and the Trump cult, including at one point boasting during a candidate forum that “I have an advantage over everyone up here. I can call up the president!”
But Minnesota Republican weren’t impressed. Lindell lost his bid by 11 points and then hilariously claimed the primary was stolen from him.
In fact, 10 candidates endorsed by Trump have now lost in this primary cycle. That’s as many Trump endorsees as lost in 2018, 2020, and 2024 combined. It’s only one shy of the Trump picks who lost in 2022.
Trump boasts about his primary wins, and wants you to forget his primary losses, because when you endorse and your candidate loses, it makes you look weak. And Trump is in fact weak and getting weaker.
The FiftyPlusOne aggregator has his approval at around 36 percent with 60 percent disapproving, which puts him 24 points underwater. An American Research Group poll pegged Trump’s approval at a dire 30 percent, his lowest number ever. Trump’s advisers are worried he’s going to sink into the 20s before the midterms.
These numbers are bad enough that they’re eroding Trump’s standing even with Republicans. The endorsement losses don’t just reflect his low approval, though — they also underline why it’s so low in the first place.
Trump loves corrupt sycophants and bounders because he is a corrupt sycophant and bounder. And, just maybe, the nation has had enough of rule by grotesquely evil fools who hate us.
No juice
Trump has racked up a string of embarrassing primary losses this season, and those losses have accelerated.
Six of his 10 failed endorsements came in the last two weeks. Three were last Tuesday, when Cory Mills and Catalina Lauf both lost House races in Florida and Degenfelder lost her bid for governor of Wyoming to state Sen. Eric Barlow.
