New MAGA recruits and $300 million war chest postpone Trump’s lame-duck era

Paxton’s overperformance in his runoff election against Cornyn capped off multiple primary wins this month for Trump-endorsed candidates against Republicans who have, at one time or another, opposed the president, from his ouster of six Indiana state senators who declined to conduct mid-decade congressional redistricting to his toppling of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who pushed for greater transparency of the federal government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

While Trump was far more magnanimous toward Cornyn in his Truth Social post compared to other rivals, the Texas senator nonetheless paid the price for political crimes against the president. Cornyn voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election and told reporters during the 2024 Republican primary that the president’s time had “passed him by.”

Such was the success of the Trump 2026 revenge tour, eyes are now inevitably turning to Republicans who could feel his wrath in 2028, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY), Todd Young (R-IN), and even Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), in addition to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who this month campaigned for Massie.

Should Paxton win in November, it makes it more likely that Trump’s MAGA legacy is protected and acted upon.

“President Trump is the unequivocal leader and best messenger for the Republican Party,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told the Washington Examiner. “Nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and commonsense agenda, and he has kept his promises.”

Wales added, “The president has already made historic progress not only in America but around the world, and this is just the beginning as his agenda continues taking effect.”

For former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, “more than most presidents,” Trump’s “nature” will “resist ever becoming a lame duck.”

“He’s a permanent bull in the china shop, and I predict he will remain one right up to Jan. 20, 2029,” Fleischer told the Washington Examiner. “It’s just the way he is.”

Republican strategist Alex Conant agreed that Trump’s tendency to “dominate headlines, set the agenda, and decide primaries makes him anything but a lame duck.”

“He continues to wield as much power as ever,” Conant told the Washington Examiner. “He will be a force as long as he remains a decider in Republican primaries and can deploy a massive war chest.”

To that end, Trump, the main Republican campaign committees, and GOP super PACs have amassed $843.6 million before November’s midterm elections, $600 million more than their Democratic counterparts, amid concerns about the Democratic National Committee‘s leadership after Chairman Ken Martin’s response to his party’s 2024 election autopsy report.

Democrats remain undeterred, underscoring, for example, how Senate Republicans departed Washington last week without voting on the GOP-only $70 billion immigration bill because of a difference of opinion with Trump over his $1 billion request for his White House ballroom, his $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund, and his endorsement of Paxton over Cornyn, a former party whip and prolific fundraiser.

“Donald Trump’s economy has cratered as Americans struggle to afford gas, groceries, and healthcare, and instead of helping lower costs, Trump is propping up far-right, out-of-touch candidates who want to double down on his ‘billionaire-first, America last’ agenda,” DNC rapid response director Kendall Whitmer told the Washington Examiner. “Republicans have lost elections up and down the ballot, and Trump’s handpicked extreme candidates will only remind Americans of Trump’s historic failures and deeply unpopular presidency.”

Democratic strategist Christopher Hahn predicted that Trump is “six months away from being a lame duck.”

“He has proven he can take out anyone in the GOP primaries, but he is poised to drag his party down in the general,” Hahn told the Washington Examiner.

TRUMP HEALTH SCRUTINY SHAPED BY FALLOUT FROM BIDEN DECLINE

Republican National Committee press secretary Kiersten Pels countered, arguing that Republicans’ “massive” war chest and the primary victories by Trump-endorsed candidates emphasize that “the energy and momentum” remain behind the “America First” movement.

“Republican voters continue rewarding candidates who support President Trump’s agenda and are rejecting the failed, far-left policies of the continually unpopular Democrat Party,” Pels told the Washington Examiner.