Is Donald Trump finally down for the count? Knowing his history, probably not. But the disastrous midterm elections, which saw one MAGA candidate after another either underperforming or bombing outright, have made him, once more, persona non grata in the Republican party. Even before Tuesday’s bloodbath, Trump was struggling to retain his pull over the GOP, at one point even threatening to pull an endorsement from a candidate he felt was insufficiently kiss-assy.
As per The New York Times (in a bit teased out by Raw Story), Trump got big mad at Joe Lombardo, the Nevada sheriff who was running for governor. He won the race, but almost without support from Trump. Shortly before the election, Trump rang up GOP chair Ronna McDaniel, complaining about a debate in which Lombardo had recently taken part. Specifically he was mad that Lombardo was backing off of 2020 voter fraud talk. What’s more he had refused to call Trump a “great” president.
“Mr. Trump fumed about withdrawing his endorsement, threatening to throw into chaos one of the nation’s most consequential swing states, a place with three competitive House races and a tossup Senate seat. Ms. McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, pleaded with the former president. She asked him for one hour to fix the situation.”
Trump’s temper tantrum appears to have worked. Shortly thereafter, Lombardo issued a statement in which he indeed called Trump “great.” At a subsequent rally, Lombardo even stepped it up, telling the crowd that he was “the greatest president.”
Whatever one thinks of Trump’s merits while in office, he clearly didn’t help with last week’s failed “red wave.” Quite the contrary, as even at least one Fox News host and the Dilbert guy have pointed out.
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/trump-threatened-pull-endorsement-great-president/