As he’s done so, Trump has secured endorsements from several prominent Republican holdouts whom he’s eviscerated in very personal terms and whose careers he’s even sought to end.
At the top of that list is Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who confirmed this week as Georgia held its primary that he would support Trump.
Kemp declined to go along with Trump’s plan to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results and has occasionally rebuked Trump’s claim that Georgia was “stolen.” Trump recruited former senator David Perdue to challenge Kemp in a 2022 primary, calling Kemp “a turncoat, a coward, and a complete and total disaster.”
The 2022 Georgia results proved a unique setback for Trump’s effort to punish Republicans who bucked his plan. Kemp defeated Perdue 74 percent to 22 percent, and other statewide incumbents such as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also beat Trump-backed challengers.
Kemp’s backing of Trump is anything but full-throated; he merely said Trump would be “better than Joe Biden.” But that’s a noted contrast to Trump, who once mused that Kemp’s Democratic opponent for governor, Stacey Abrams, “might be better” than Kemp.
(Trump ultimately offered a mild Kemp endorsement on the eve of the 2022 general election, when Kemp led in every poll.)
Another big recent example is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).
McConnell strongly criticized Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — calling Trump’s actions a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” — and has occasionally broken with Trump. But Trump has gone much further, attacking McConnell’s wife in racist terms and suggestively writing that McConnell has a “DEATH WISH.” He called McConnell a “dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack” and even attacked him after he froze during a news conference last year.
Trump reportedly recruited Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) to challenge McConnell for Senate GOP leader in 2022, a race Scott lost badly. But when McConnell ultimately announced his retirement two weeks ago, he nodded to how the politics in his party had changed — an apparent reference to how Trumpism had overtaken him.
Trump’s feuding has been less pronounced with McConnell’s No. 2, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), who also recently endorsed Trump. But the elements have all been present.
Thune connected Trump’s rhetoric to the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying Trump’s effort to “undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable.”
Trump also called for a primary challenger against the senator, whom he labeled a “Republican in name only,” declaring Thune’s “political career over.” He reportedly tried to recruit South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem. Thune even considered retiring in part because of Trump. (Thune ran again, no strong primary challenger materialized, and now Thune is vying to succeed McConnell atop the Senate GOP.)
The last example we’ll spotlight is New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed Trump last week.
Sununu has more of a track record than the others of concerted Trump criticism. And he actually endorsed a Trump primary opponent, Nikki Haley.
But mostly, Sununu’s criticisms have been pragmatic — aimed at pushing the GOP toward a different course in the name of winning. Trump, meanwhile, has suggested that Sununu is corrupt and questioned his “guts” after Sununu declined to run for Senate. A top Trump adviser in 2022 said Trump had instructed him to find a primary challenger for Sununu. (Sununu ran for and easily won reelection in 2022. He ultimately declined to seek another term in 2024.)
It’s one thing for a…
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