Former President Donald Trump fired back at one of his arch-nemeses, The New York Times after a columnist suggested the 45th president was losing his political mojo.
Specifically, Trump called columnist Ross Douthat, who at the Times passes for a “conservative,” for claiming Trump is “weakening.”
Douthat claimed that Trump’s continued “Stop the Steal” narrative is “a big part of why 2022 hasn’t been a particularly good year for Trump’s 2024 ambitions. Across 2021, he bent important parts of the GOP back to his will, but in recent months his powers have been ebbing.”
The columnist noted, “While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his strongest potential rival, has been throwing himself in front of almost every issue that Republican primary voters care about, Trump has marinated in grievance.” And in particular, he stews over the show trial created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked Jan 6. Committee.
On Tuesday, Trump offered a retort.
“Incredible how The New York Times just never gives up. One of their third-rate columnists wrote a story on Saturday saying that, despite almost universal victories in every major race, Trump may be losing his power,” the former president said in a statement.
Douthat, he added, doesn’t cover “minor” events like Dan Cox winning the Republican gubernatorial primary in Maryland last week. Cox, said Trump, was “a person not known but strongly Endorsed (sic) by me, absolutely destroyed the Endorsed (sic) and highly campaigned for candidate of RINO Governor Larry Hogan. This was a big upset. Fox News said it couldn’t happen!”
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Trump further noted that in Ohio, U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance “came from low in the polls to the front of the pack, while in the Senate primary in neighboring Pennsylvania, Dr. Mehmet Oz “was also losing substantially, but went up like a rocketship once he was Endorsed by me.”
Trump continued to tick off candidates that prevailed after he nodded their way, from North Carolina to Arizona to Wisconsin. Trump asserted that in Texas, “I was 33-0. Every single person I Endorsed (sic) won!”
“Likewise, for most other candidates. PERFECT in 23 States so far, UNDEFEATED in all U.S. Senate Primaries (13-0). And now others, in Missouri and Michigan, are waiting for me to Endorse, one way or another. They say, whoever I endorse will win!”
Trump is not wrong about how his influence can swing a race.
According to a Los Angeles Times tracker of his 2022 endorsements, Trump has endorsed 195 candidates for governor, the U.S. House and Senate and state-level executive posts.
Of the 146 contests decided as of July 21, Trump’s choice won 136 of them – a 93 percent winning percentage. He still has 49 races to go.
Trump then got in a shot on one of his favored topics of late: blasting the Times for refusing to surrender the Pulitzer Prize it received in 2018 for reporting on the Russia-collusion hoax perpetrated by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“It was a made up fairytale of zero truth or consequence,” he said, and accordingly, “their story about my possible ‘weakening’ power is Fake News, that doesn’t mention any of these recent Victories (sic).”
He again called for the Times and The Washington Post, which also captured a Pulitzer for the Russia non-story, to give up their “manufactured” Pulitzers. “They got it all wrong. The only thing they should get a Pulitzer Prize for is writing Fake News,” he said.
Continuing, Trump noted that “there are disadvantages to having this never before seen Endorsement (sic) power”: Endorsing people, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who “have not been good to me.”
“But I will never be good to them either,” added Trump.
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In closing, Trump noted, “The true story is that my Endorsements (sic) have been, by any standard, amazing—stronger than ever seen before in our Country’s (sic) history.”
“If the opposite case were true, I would be fine with strong reporting on it, but as long as it’s not, report the News (sic) correctly and accurately. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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