Trump endorses hardliner Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in critical Texas US Senate race runoff
And right on time, Donald Trump has endorsed hardliner Ken Paxton in his primary challenge to veteran Republican US senator John Cornyn, boosting the Texas attorney general’s chances of securing his party’s nomination for a critical Texas race in November’s midterm elections.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social announcing the endorsement, Trump called Paxton “a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate.”
I know Ken well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a WINNER! Ken is a Strong Supporter of TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER and, very importantly, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, something which polls at 87%, including Dumocrats, and yet can’t seem to get approved. Perhaps Ken can help move these important elements of Government forward because with the Filibuster, as an example, the Democrats will terminate it on their First Day in Office, giving us two extra States, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and a greatly enlarged Supreme Court of the United States, probably going with their Dream Number of 21 Justices from the 9 that we currently have — And these new Justices will be Radical Left Lunatics! Two years ago, our Country was DEAD — Now we have the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World — And I want to keep it that way. Ken Paxton will help me do that, MAKING AMERICA BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!
He will tirelessly fight to continue the Great Growth of our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations (I just delivered the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts in American History!), and Advance MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Champion Texas Oil & Gas, Advocate for our Amazing Farmers and Ranchers, Promote School Choice, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Support our Incredible Military/Veterans, Safeguard our Elections, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment.
Scandal-scarred Paxton faces Cornyn, an old guard Republican, in a 26 May runoff after neither secured a majority in their three-way March primary election. Both candidates had tried to position themselves as closely to Trump as possible, but some Republican leaders had worried that Paxton could endanger a typically safe seat.
In his endorsement announcement, Trump said Cornyn was “a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.”
“John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself,” he added.
Trump in March said he would ask the candidate he did not endorse to drop out of the race, which has been one of the nation’s costliest US Senate primary contests.
The victor of the runoff will face off against Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state lawmaker and Presbyterian seminarian who has explicitly appealed to independents and moderates in a state that has long been dominated by Republicans.
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“Ken Paxton is a disaster,” Crockett said, speaking from Dulan’s soul food restaurant, where she endorsed HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra for governor of California. “This is the crème de la crème of the Republican Party nowadays.”
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The Democratic congresswoman ticked through Paxton’s vulnerabilities: his impeachment, the federal investigations, and his extramarital affairs.
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“I wish people would wake up and recognize that the party of law and order is no longer there. The party of family values [is no longer there] because he has this long history of cheating on his wife and using taxpayer dollars,” she said. “It is going to be a fun time for the Democrats if for some reason Ken Paxton makes it through that primary.”
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Crockett lost the Democratic nomination for Senate to James Talarico.
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“It doesn’t matter who wins this runoff. We already know who we’re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system,” said Talarico, in response to Trump endorsing Paxton. “For decades, John Cornyn and Ken Paxton have embodied a broken politics that enriches wealthy donors while costs skyrocket for the rest of us.”
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And right on time, Donald Trump has endorsed hardliner Ken Paxton in his primary challenge to veteran Republican US senator John Cornyn, boosting the Texas attorney general’s chances of securing his party’s nomination for a critical Texas race in November’s midterm elections.
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In a lengthy post on Truth Social announcing the endorsement, Trump called Paxton “a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate.”
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n
I know Ken well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a WINNER! Ken is a Strong Supporter of TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER and, very importantly, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, something which polls at 87%, including Dumocrats, and yet can’t seem to get approved. Perhaps Ken can help move these important elements of Government forward because with the Filibuster, as an example, the Democrats will terminate it on their First Day in Office, giving us two extra States, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and a greatly enlarged Supreme Court of the United States, probably going with their Dream Number of 21 Justices from the 9 that we currently have — And these new Justices will be Radical Left Lunatics! Two years ago, our Country was DEAD — Now we have the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World — And I want to keep it that way. Ken Paxton will help me do that, MAKING AMERICA BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!
n
He will tirelessly fight to continue the Great Growth of our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations (I just delivered the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts in American History!), and Advance MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Champion Texas Oil & Gas, Advocate for our Amazing Farmers and Ranchers, Promote School Choice, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Support our Incredible Military/Veterans, Safeguard our Elections, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment.
n
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Scandal-scarred Paxton faces Cornyn, an old guard Republican, in a 26 May runoff after neither secured a majority in their three-way March primary election. Both candidates had tried to position themselves as closely to Trump as possible, but some Republican leaders had worried that Paxton could endanger a typically safe seat.
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In his endorsement announcement, Trump said Cornyn was “a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.”
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“John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself,” he added.
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Trump in March said he would ask the candidate he did not endorse to drop out of the race, which has been one of the nation’s costliest US Senate primary contests.
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The victor of the runoff will face off against Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state lawmaker and Presbyterian seminarian who has explicitly appealed to independents and moderates in a state that has long been dominated by Republicans.
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Trump also spoke in detail about the security of his proposed White House ballroom, calling it his “gift” to the country, as dozens of workers in safety vests hammered, welded and moved materials behind him.
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The ballroom site is still open-air and, per the press pool reporter, the lowest portion of the construction site appeared to be approximately three stories deep.
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He said the construction began six stories underground. The ballroom has a drone-proof roof and it will have a drone port on the roof where unlimited drones can land, he said, acting as a “shield” to protect the White House campus.
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The roof will have “the greatest drone empire that you’ve ever seen and it’s going to protect Washington”, he said, adding that the ballroom was a social and security gift for future presidents – and the country.
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n
When this opens, I’ll be here for a very short period of time. This is really being built for other presidents. This is my gift to the United States of America.
n
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Trump said the ballroom project was within the proposed budget and timeline and the only thing they have changed from the start is that the size of the building has doubled.
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n
This is a shield that protects everything that’s inside, everything that’s on top.
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Trump speaks at the site of ongoing construction of his planned White House ballroom.”,”caption”:”Donald Trump speaks at the site of ongoing construction of his planned White House ballroom.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1779205834000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”11.50 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1779207729000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”12.22 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1779207428000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”12.17 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”12.17″,”title”:”Trump calls ballroom his ‘gift’ to the country and says it will ‘shield’ all of Washington DC”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Tue 19 May 2026 15.08 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Tue 19 May 2026 06.42 EDT”},{“id”:”6a0c83318f0862687c4045bb”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Trump said he feels confident that the US could reach a diplomatic deal with Cuba, and that he wants to help the Cuban people.
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“Look, Cuba is calling us. They need help, but Cuba is a failed nation. Cuba needs help, and we’ll do that,” he said.
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“I am very prone toward the Cuban Americans. They’re incredible people. I want to help them now. They have family members in Cuba. They’ve been treated very, very badly.”
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He said Cuba’s had a tough regime and now the country needs help and the US is ready to help.
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The president held an impromptu news conference against the backdrop of the White House’s proposed ballroom’s construction Monday morning. He spoke about the ballroom, Iran, Cuba, the Kentucky congressional race, and the new “reflecting lake”, which he wants to inaugurate before July 4.
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While showing reporters how the construction of the ballroom was coming along, he said: “This is all my money and donor’s money. This is tax free.”
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“It goes down deep and it’s titanium, which is the strongest of all of the metals, much stronger than steel,” Trump said, describing that the ballroom was a gift from him to the country. “Take as an example what happened a couple of weeks ago at the White House correspondents’ dinner could not happen here.”
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Trump answered questions about US foreign policy related to Cuba, while still holding a large photo of what the constructed ballroom would look like.
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“Look, Cuba is calling us,” he said. “They need help. Cuba is a failed nation.”
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While speaking about Iran, amid loud noises of what sound like hammers and chisels, Trump said he agreed to give Iran “maybe until early next week” to reach a deal with the US.
n “I won’t let the world be blown up on my watch,” he said while talking about Iran’s nuclear program.
n After answering a few questions about Massie, the Republican candidate standing against the Trump-endorsed candidate in Kentucky, Trump again began speaking about the ballroom and how it would change the face of the White House.
On Massie, Trump said he’s “the worst congressman,” and “not even Republican.”
Trump said he would be endorsing a candidate for the senate race in Texas in the afternoon today.
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“There are those that say whoever I endorse will win,” he said. “But I don’t like to say that, I don’t like to brag.”
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Defense secretary Pete Hegseth visited Kentucky on Monday to support Thomas Massie’s rival Ed Gallrein in a significant a break from tradition.
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Hegseth said he was speaking “as a private citizen” and that Gallrein is a “warfighter”.
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“President Trump told me, when he first offered me this job, he said, ‘Pete, you’re gonna have to be tough as shit,’” Hegseth said.
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“But that’s also what Ed represents, a warfighter, a man forged through service.”
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“I’m here in my personal capacity as a private citizen, a fellow American, and a fellow combat veteran here to support Navy Seal Ed Gallrein,” he added.
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“President Trump does not need more people in Washington who are trying to make a point, especially from his own party, he needs people willing to help him win to vote with him when it matters the most.”
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Gallrein, left, with Pete Hegseth at their event last night in Hebron, Kentucky”,”caption”:”Ed Gallrein, left, with Pete Hegseth at their event last night in Hebron, Kentucky”,”credit”:”Photograph: Jon Cherry/Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1779187326000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”06.42 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1779188673000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”07.04 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1779188221000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”06.57 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”06.57″,”title”:”Hegseth breaks tradition to share stage with Massie rival Gallrein”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Tue 19 May 2026 15.08 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Tue 19 May 2026 06.42 EDT”},{“id”:”6a0c2c8a8f08ab570fbd133c”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
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Voters will head to the polls in primaries across six states today, with the contest in Kentucky seen as a test of Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican party.
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Trump launched a tirade against the state’s congressman Thomas Massie over the weekend as he looks to remove him from office.
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Massie is one of very few senior Republicans who has dared to defy Trump, with the president calling him the “worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country”. He went on to call on Kentucky voters to “vote the bum out on Tuesday” on social media.
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Massie has been a consistent thorn in Trump’s side, voting against his signature tax and spending cuts bill, helping to force the justice department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, and insisting on congressional oversight over the military actions in Venezuela and Iran. Now he faces a bruising primary against his Trump-endorsed challenger, Ed Gallrein.
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Republican voters in Kentucky will also choose their candidate to replace Mitch McConnell, the former Senate GOP leader who is retiring. The frontrunners to succeed McConnell are congressman Andy Barr and former state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron.
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Among Democrats, Charles Booker and Amy McGrath, who lost Senate races in the state in 2022 and 2020, respectively, are vying for their party’s nomination once again.
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Meanwhile, voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho will also head to the polls to select candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.
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In other developments:
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Police are investigating a deadly shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego as a hate crime, after three people were killed and two dead suspects were identified near the scene. Democratic leaders from across the country issued statements in the wake of the shooting calling out Islamophobia and advocating for stricter gun laws.
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At a healthcare affordability event, Donald Trump announced that his website TrumpRx.gov will now include a catalog of generic drugs. Trump touted the move as “increasing the number of drugs available on TrumpRx by nearly seven times, adding over 600 affordable generics to the website”.
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Trump moved to dismiss a $10bn lawsuit against the Interal Revenue Service and his administration created a $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate his allies for supposed persecution by the government. Democrats harshly criticized the settlement, saying it amounts to the creation of a “slush fund” for the president’s allies.
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An effort to reshape South Carolina’s congressional districts got its first full airing Monday in the state House. Lawmakers launched a lengthy discussion over the consequences of acceding to Trump’s calls for a US House map that could yield a clean sweep for Republicans.
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Trump also said he is requesting the attorney general and Justice Department investigate mail-in voting in Maryland. In a post on Truth Social, Trump alleged that Maryland had “sent out 500,000 Illegal Mail In Ballots” and blamed “the Corrupt Governor of the State, Wes Moore”, a Democrat, who “allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win”.
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Nancy Pelosi has endorsed San Francisco supervisor Connie Chan in the race to fill the seat Pelosi will vacate at the end of her term.
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The Trump administration has proposed allowing up to 17,500 white South Africans to enter the United States as refugees, beginning in the new fiscal year, CNN reports, citing an emergency determination letter sent to Congress that it obtained.
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Key events
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When Vice President JD Vance was faced with questions about the $1.8bn slush fund being eligible for people who attacked the Capitol building and attacked police officers on January 6, he said anybody could apply for the fund.
“Republicans can apply for it. Democrats can apply for it,” he said. “The president has pardoned a number of Democrats who he felt were actually subject to this lawfare. I mean, if Hunter Biden wants to apply for this particular fund, he is welcome to.”
Vance said people who would receive this money are those who have been prosecuted completely disproportionate to any crime they’ve ever committed, citing the example of Tina Peters.
Peters is a Colorado election clerk, who had her prison sentence commuted on Friday by Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, after months of pressure from Donald Trump and other conservatives. She was the county clerk in western Colorado’s Mesa county in 2020 when she allowed an unauthorized person to use a security badge and access her county’s voting equipment.
Vance said the claims for the fund would be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Blanche was also questioned by Patty Murray, a Democratic senator from Washington, about the creation of a nearly $1.8bn slush fund to compensate prosecuted allies of the president.
“What we are talking about is nothing short of the sitting President of the United States looting from the Treasury for his own gain,” said Murray. “Do you seriously think this arrangement is appropriate?”
Blanche defended the fund, and while he did not rule out that payments could be made to January 6 rioters, he said there would be transparency about the beneficiaries.
Blanche said: “The president did not set up this fund, it’s not a slush fund. It’s been done many times; we have lots of funds.”
Anna Betts
Todd Blanche says he would not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell
Todd Blanche, the acting US attorney general, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he would not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes.
Blanche’s comments came during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, where he was testifying before the appropriations subcommittee over budget requests for the justice department.
During one exchange, Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, asked Blanche whether the justice department, and he as the acting attorney general, could commit to not recommending a pardon for Maxwell.
“Yes, I can commit to that, of course,” Blanche, who is a former personal lawyer for Trump, responded.
The statement comes as Maxwell exhausted a series of appeals of her conviction, with the US supreme court in October declining to hear her petition.
‘Ken Paxton is a disaster’: Texas congresswoman Crockett on Trump endorsement
Lauren Gambino
Speaking at an event in South LA on Tuesday morning, Texas congresswoman Jasmine Crockett said she was a “bit speechless” when informed by the Guardian that Trump had just endorsed Ken Paxton for Senate.
“Ken Paxton is a disaster,” Crockett said, speaking from Dulan’s soul food restaurant, where she endorsed HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra for governor of California. “This is the crème de la crème of the Republican Party nowadays.”
The Democratic congresswoman ticked through Paxton’s vulnerabilities: his impeachment, the federal investigations, and his extramarital affairs.
“I wish people would wake up and recognize that the party of law and order is no longer there. The party of family values [is no longer there] because he has this long history of cheating on his wife and using taxpayer dollars,” she said. “It is going to be a fun time for the Democrats if for some reason Ken Paxton makes it through that primary.”
Crockett lost the Democratic nomination for Senate to James Talarico.
“It doesn’t matter who wins this runoff. We already know who we’re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system,” said Talarico, in response to Trump endorsing Paxton. “For decades, John Cornyn and Ken Paxton have embodied a broken politics that enriches wealthy donors while costs skyrocket for the rest of us.”
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People launched a campaign today calling on Black athletes, their families, friend and supporters to hold athletic and financial support from public universities in states that have moved to weaken Black voting representation in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
The “Out of Bounds” campaign was launched because the NAACP believes the ongoing redistricting has gutted what was left of the Voting Rights Act.
Eight priority states – Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia – and well-financed public athletic programs have been identified.
The NAACP’s ask is that top football and basketball players actively being recruited withhold their commitments until the states restore fair congressional maps and meaningful Black representation.
Ken Paxton said in a post on X that he was “incredibly honored” to have received Donald Trump’s endorsement.
No one has ever fought harder for the American people than President Trump, and I look forward to championing his America First agenda in the Senate!
Trump endorses hardliner Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in critical Texas US Senate race runoff
And right on time, Donald Trump has endorsed hardliner Ken Paxton in his primary challenge to veteran Republican US senator John Cornyn, boosting the Texas attorney general’s chances of securing his party’s nomination for a critical Texas race in November’s midterm elections.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social announcing the endorsement, Trump called Paxton “a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate.”
I know Ken well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a WINNER! Ken is a Strong Supporter of TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER and, very importantly, THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, something which polls at 87%, including Dumocrats, and yet can’t seem to get approved. Perhaps Ken can help move these important elements of Government forward because with the Filibuster, as an example, the Democrats will terminate it on their First Day in Office, giving us two extra States, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and a greatly enlarged Supreme Court of the United States, probably going with their Dream Number of 21 Justices from the 9 that we currently have — And these new Justices will be Radical Left Lunatics! Two years ago, our Country was DEAD — Now we have the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World — And I want to keep it that way. Ken Paxton will help me do that, MAKING AMERICA BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!
He will tirelessly fight to continue the Great Growth of our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations (I just delivered the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts in American History!), and Advance MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Champion Texas Oil & Gas, Advocate for our Amazing Farmers and Ranchers, Promote School Choice, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Support our Incredible Military/Veterans, Safeguard our Elections, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment.
Scandal-scarred Paxton faces Cornyn, an old guard Republican, in a 26 May runoff after neither secured a majority in their three-way March primary election. Both candidates had tried to position themselves as closely to Trump as possible, but some Republican leaders had worried that Paxton could endanger a typically safe seat.
In his endorsement announcement, Trump said Cornyn was “a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.”
“John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself,” he added.
Trump in March said he would ask the candidate he did not endorse to drop out of the race, which has been one of the nation’s costliest US Senate primary contests.
The victor of the runoff will face off against Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state lawmaker and Presbyterian seminarian who has explicitly appealed to independents and moderates in a state that has long been dominated by Republicans.
The president also said he will announce his endorsement in the heated Republican Senate runoff contest in Texas between US senator John Cornyn and the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, this afternoon.
Going to make an endorsement around 12:30-1 o’clock. I hope you find it good.
“I’ve pretty much always known who I was going to endorse,” Trump said, adding, “I think it’s a good time” to do so.
Trump calls ballroom his ‘gift’ to the country and says it will ‘shield’ all of Washington DC
Trump also spoke in detail about the security of his proposed White House ballroom, calling it his “gift” to the country, as dozens of workers in safety vests hammered, welded and moved materials behind him.
The ballroom site is still open-air and, per the press pool reporter, the lowest portion of the construction site appeared to be approximately three stories deep.
He said the construction began six stories underground. The ballroom has a drone-proof roof and it will have a drone port on the roof where unlimited drones can land, he said, acting as a “shield” to protect the White House campus.
The roof will have “the greatest drone empire that you’ve ever seen and it’s going to protect Washington”, he said, adding that the ballroom was a social and security gift for future presidents – and the country.
When this opens, I’ll be here for a very short period of time. This is really being built for other presidents. This is my gift to the United States of America.
Trump said the ballroom project was within the proposed budget and timeline and the only thing they have changed from the start is that the size of the building has doubled.
This is a shield that protects everything that’s inside, everything that’s on top.
Trump also spoke about the prayer rally held in Washington DC Sunday, describing it as a “beautiful day”.
“I think religion is very important for a country,” he said. “This country was built largely on religion.”
Religion is making a comeback, the president said, claiming that churches are fuller today than they were three years ago.
“Christianity, it’s a great thing for our country,” he said. “I mean, so many of the things that we we’ve done, the successes that we’ve had have been based on Christianity and religions.”
Donald Trump says ‘Cuba is calling us’ and that US could reach diplomatic deal with Cuba
Trump said he feels confident that the US could reach a diplomatic deal with Cuba, and that he wants to help the Cuban people.
“Look, Cuba is calling us. They need help, but Cuba is a failed nation. Cuba needs help, and we’ll do that,” he said.
“I am very prone toward the Cuban Americans. They’re incredible people. I want to help them now. They have family members in Cuba. They’ve been treated very, very badly.”
He said Cuba’s had a tough regime and now the country needs help and the US is ready to help.
