Swansenreport

Trump Goes Nuclear on Senate Republicans — Endorses Paxton Over Cornyn

President Trump sent a shockwave through Senate Republican leadership Tuesday, endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Texas GOP Senate runoff — a pointed rebuke of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the Republican caucus that has spent the past week blocking a string of Trump’s priorities.

Sources familiar with Trump’s decision said he was “pissed off” at Senate Republicans for refusing to eliminate the filibuster, resisting his calls to fire the Senate parliamentarian, pushing back on funding for the White House ballroom, and opposing the proposed DOJ “anti-weaponization fund.” In endorsing Paxton, Trump wasn’t just picking a Senate candidate — he was sending a message to every Republican incumbent who has crossed him. RedState

Trump made the message explicit in his endorsement post: “Ken is a Strong Supporter of TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER and, very importantly, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, something which polls at 87%, including Dumocrats [sic], and yet can’t seem to get approved.” He added that “perhaps Ken can help move these important elements of Government forward.” TMZ

The backstory of how Paxton engineered the endorsement is worth understanding. After Cornyn finished ahead of Paxton in the March primary, Trump appeared ready to endorse Cornyn quickly. Paxton scrambled, announcing he would drop out of the race if Senate Republicans abolished the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act. The gambit worked — it forced Cornyn to reverse his longstanding defense of the filibuster, and it caught Trump’s attention enough to delay the endorsement for weeks while the president extracted whatever he could from the situation. Yahoo!

The reaction from Senate Republicans was swift and anxious. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) told reporters the endorsement “puts that seat in jeopardy” — a reference to Paxton’s legal vulnerabilities and the risk of losing a safe Republican seat in November. Some officials privately warned the endorsement could paralyze Trump’s ability to legislate for the rest of this Congress. NOTUS

A Republican operative involved in Senate races put it bluntly: “He saw the way the winds were blowing, but the f— you to Thune is an added bonus.” Breitbart

The Paxton endorsement is the clearest sign yet that Trump is done waiting on Senate Republicans. Having successfully backed primary challengers in Louisiana, he now appears willing to use the same playbook in Texas — and potentially elsewhere — against incumbents who won’t bend to his agenda. Senate Republicans who spent the past week saying no are now doing the math on whether they could face a similar fate.

Sources: NOTUS | Texas Tribune | NBC News | CNN Politics | Democracy Docket