President Donald Trump is preparing to endorse a longtime Senate incumbent over a loyal ally in a closely watched Republican primary — a decision that would put him at odds with parts of the MAGA base that have rallied behind the challenger.
Trump has said he intends to endorse Sen. John Cornyn over his Republican opponent Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and a longtime ally of Trump, according to three people familiar with his thinking, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The Republican primary race heads to a runoff in May. Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social that he plans to make an endorsement soon and declared that the candidate he doesn’t endorse should drop out.
Paxton has expressed defiance, signaling Thursday that he intends to remain in the race but would “consider” dropping out if the Senate’s Republican leaders — who are backing Cornyn — agree to lift the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would make huge changes to how Americans vote and one of Trump’s top priorities. Republican senators have suggested it’s unlikely the Senate will do so ahead of the May 26 runoff election, and Paxton allies expect he will stay in the race.
Trump’s looming decision reflects a pragmatic calculation by the president that Cornyn, a 23-year Senate incumbent who once said Trump couldn’t win the 2024 election, would be a stronger general-election candidate than Paxton, a loyal Trump ally whose legal troubles and impeachment in office have made some GOP strategists wary.
From prominent MAGA voices to lesser-known grassroots activists, many in Trump’s die-hard base say they are befuddled that the president is heeding the calls of establishment GOP operatives over his most loyal backers, adding to frustrations among supporters who warn that waning enthusiasm could threaten Republican turnout in the midterms.
Conservative media figures and MAGA influencers have blanketed social media this week with posts highlighting Cornyn’s past criticisms of Trump, questioning the president’s commitment to “drain the swamp” in Washington, and pledging to support Paxton regardless of Trump’s endorsement. They also recirculated a 2023 Truth Social post from Trump in which he compared Cornyn to former senator Mitt Romney, a Trump critic, and said Cornyn was “always quick to surrender to the Dems.”
“It is a massive ask for the president, love him though we may, to come in and say, ‘Hey, that conservative that you love for the same reasons you love me? I want you to change your mind’” and not vote for Paxton, said Mark Davis, a conservative radio host in Texas who is closely attuned with Trump-supporting Republican activists in the state.
“A whole lot of them are simply not going to do it. This is needless tension thrown into a race that’s going to play out the way it plays out.”
In discussing the race, the president has noted to people around him that there are potential downsides to both candidates: Paxton, Trump has acknowledged, carries significant baggage from his highly publicized divorce from his state senator wife, which stemmed from allegations of his infidelity. He was impeached and acquitted in 2023 after lawmakers accused him of misusing his office to benefit a real estate investor. But he has championed some of Trump’s top initiatives, including trying to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump has privately conceded that Cornyn could face an enthusiasm problem on the right in November, according to one of the people who has discussed the two candidates with Trump. Still, his closest advisers — and the people with the greatest access to the president — have so far succeeded in steering Trump toward Cornyn.
Cornyn, who along with allies like the Senate Leadership Fund and National Republican Senatorial Committee spent roughly $70 million on ad buys, earned 42 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s primary. Paxton, who most polls had shown with a lead, finished second with 41 percent — though ad spending in his favor was under $5 million, according to the tracking firm AdImpact. Paxton had been endorsed by the MAGA-friendly Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Although Trump’s endorsed candidates in Republican primaries typically emerge victorious, there have been notable exceptions. A rare state Senate race that drew Trump’s endorsement ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in North Carolina remains too close to call. Trump’s favored candidate — the incumbent state Senate leader — trails two votes behind a lesser-funded challenger who had the backing of many conservative activists.
After word spread Wednesday of Trump’s intentions to back Cornyn, MAGA activists plastered their social media pages with headlines about Cornyn pushing back on Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, or Cornyn’s comments to reporters in 2023 that it was time for Republicans to move on from Trump.
“This is why the grassroots is apoplectic,” said Stephen K. Bannon, a former top Trump adviser who has aired his “War Room” podcast from Texas for the past five weeks. He is supporting Paxton.
“They hate Cornyn,” Bannon said. “They don’t hate him because he’s a ‘RINO,’ they don’t hate him because of his record. They don’t like him because of that, but they hate him because he has hated on Trump.”
Since Trump secured the Republican nomination in 2024, Cornyn — whom Trump once called a RINO, an acronym for “Republican in Name Only” — has worked to tie himself much more closely to the president. The senator hired Trump’s top political aides, including Trump’s 2024 senior adviser Chris LaCivita, to run his reelection this year.
Asked by The Washington Post last month why he had not yet endorsed Cornyn like top Senate Republicans had urged, Trump called him “a good man” but said he liked “all three” of the Republicans in the race, referring to Cornyn, Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, who did not advance to the runoff on Tuesday.
“They’ve all supported me. They’re all good,” Trump said. “And you’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Asked Thursday about Paxton’s offer to consider dropping out of the race, contingent on the passage of the SAVE America Act, Cornyn told The Post, “I think that’s a conversation he should have with the president.”
Still, the uproar over Trump potentially siding against the MAGA base in Texas is unlikely to translate into long-term harm for the president. While polling shows that Trump’s approval rating has slid somewhat in recent months with Republican voters, self-identified MAGA voters still givethe president soaring marks, with 98 percent approval, according to a recent Fox News poll.
“More than anger, it’s creating apathy,” said Raheem Kassam, editor of the conservative National Pulse and a MAGA-aligned political operative, referring to activists frustrated about Trump and Cornyn.
Matthew Boyle, the Washington bureau chief for the Trump-aligned Breitbart news site, who has criticized Cornyn, noted that Trump has enthusiastically supported Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection bid in South Carolina. That’s despite Graham being widely despised by the MAGA base. Trump supporters largely “haven’t held it against him,” Boyle said.
Conservative activists in Texas have questioned whether Trump’s endorsement will prove to be as effective this time.
Davis, the conservative radio host in Texas, told The Post on Thursday that he had tried repeatedly to identify listeners who were leaning toward supporting Paxton in the runoff but intend to support Cornyn if Trump endorses him.
“I can’t find any. I can’t find one,” Davis said. “So everybody at the White House should know that while Trump endorsements carry a lot of weight, that a large number — I mean, in the millions — of Trump fans in Texas, their message to him is: ‘We thank God every day for you, Mr. President, but we’re going to make up our own minds on this one.’”
Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report
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