President Donald Trump took a victory lap in a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, boasting about candidates he endorsed winning in Tuesday’s primary elections.
More than a dozen of these candidates, however, had no opponent and were all but certain to win their respective races. Several of the candidates that 79-year-old Trump bragged about even had their primaries canceled because they had no opponent.
In each image, Trump included a picture of himself scowling, a picture of the candidate, the text “Endorsed by President Trump,” and a declaration of their victory.
Trump flexed that Texas Republican members of Congress Monica De La Cruz, Craig Goldman, August Pfluger, Nathaniel Moran, Lance Gooden, Beth Van Duyne, Pete Sessions, Dustin Burrows, had won their races, which was to be expected as none of them had primary opponents.
He boasted that Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, one of his former press secretaries during his first term, had won her primary, which was canceled because she faced no opponents. He also bragged that Arkansas Congressmen Bruce Westerman and Rick Crawford had won their canceled primaries.
He flexed his primary endorsements of North Carolina GOP Congressmen Greg Murphy, Richard Hudson, and Addison McDowell, all of whom had their primaries canceled as they also faced no challengers.
Despite the bragging, several Trump-endorsed candidates lost their races on Tuesday. Trump did not post about them.
Sid Miller, the incumbent Texas Agriculture Commissioner, lost his election. Trump had praised him as a “MAGA Warrior” and gave his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
Two other Trump-endorsed state Senate candidates in Texas, Cecil Bell Jr. and Stan Kitzman, also lost their respective races.
Trump has yet to make an endorsement in the high-profile three-way Texas Senate race between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing a challenge from MAGA firebrand Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX).
That race advanced to a run-off between Cornyn and Paxton. Trump said on Truth Social that he would make an endorsement in the race “soon,” and demanded that the candidate he does not endorse drop out.
While Trump did not say who he was leaning towards, The Atlantic reported that Trump is going to endorse Cornyn.
The Trump endorsement is not a guarantee of success. Dozens of Trump-endorsed candidates lost their races in the 2022 midterm election.
In Arizona, the Trump endorsement has proved disastrous for the GOP, as two-time Trump-endorsed candidate Kari Lake lost both her run for governor in 2022 and Senate in 2024, flipping the onetime Republican stronghold blue in back-to-back elections.
Trump has also endorsed two candidates, especially when the race is particularly close or a true toss-up.
In other elections, the president has not made endorsements at all when Republicans are running in Democratic strongholds or when the momentum seems to be against the GOP in that particular race.
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