Trump Puts Himself in a No-Win Situation in Texas

Donald Trump likes to pick winners so much that he usually doesn’t get involved in competitive primaries. After all, if his choice were to lose, he believes that would reflect poorly on him. And the president isn’t wrong, especially because he makes such a big deal of the impact of his endorsement.

That is why he never indicated a preference in the race for the Republican Senate primary in Texas. His indecisiveness has come at a steep cost.

If Trump had picked a candidate, chances are that the GOP could have avoided a messy situation in which the three contenders — incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Wesley Hunt — spent $100 million and spilled a lot of bad blood in a primary that is now headed to a runoff between the top two vote getters.

For example, Hunt, who finished a distant third but got enough votes to prevent Cornyn or Paxton from reaching the 50-percent threshold, said he would not even have gotten into the race if the president had made an endorsement beforehand.

Now, Trump is trying to do damage control.

In a social media post on Wednesday, he announced that not only would he make an endorsement soon, but also that he expects the other candidate to drop out immediately.

Because the prospect of losing the Senate majority, which is a real possibility if Democrat James Talarico were to prevail in November, is even more troubling to the president than simply betting on the wrong horse in a race.

In his post, Trump said the GOP primary, “cannot, for the good of the party, and our Country, itself, be allowed to go on any longer,” adding that “IT MUST STOP NOW!”

That is probably how all those donors feel who needlessly wasted $100 million. And it is certainly how Senate Republicans feel who believe that the scandal-burdened Paxton could cost them the seat while Cornyn is most likely to win.

They have been lobbying Trump all along to endorse the incumbent. However, because Paxton is one of the most loyal MAGA soldiers, he never did.

That is all about to change, according to the president.

“Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT! My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable! It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas!” wrote the ever-succinct Trump. “I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!!”

Ever the showman, the president now assures himself a captive audience until he unveils his decision, just like in one of the episodes of The Apprentice.

When he does, there are two options: Either the spurned candidate — and common sense dictates that it will be Paxton (although common sense isn’t Trump’s strongest suit) — does his master’s bidding or he stays in the race.

If it’s the former, then it shows how beholden Republicans are to Trump and highlights the party’s cult-like nature. Trump is asking one of the two men to essentially end his political career and abandon a race in which he invested a lot of time, energy, and (other people’s) money. Its an extraordinary ask and unrivaled in recent US history.

If it’s the latter, then it makes Trump look weak.

Furthermore, both of them got about 900,000 votes on Tuesday, and there is a good chance that not all of their respective supporters will be happy with the president’s decision, especially because it has already been a very acrimonious primary between the right-wing Paxton and the DC insider Cornyn.

If Trump chooses the senator, then that will surely be viewed as a betrayal among many in the MAGA base who have already had to swallow the fact that the president just plunged the country into another war in the Middle East, not to mention that whole Epstein mess.

The bottom line is that Trump has handled the entire thing very clumsily from start to finish, and, if Talarico were to come out ahead in November, would only have himself to blame.