The ceasefire between Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and President Donald Trump has been threatened by the state's Republican Senate primary race.
The GOP governor had been the top choice to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff but ultimately declined to run, and Kemp instead threw his support behind former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley. Trump world sources told NOTUS the president and his allies are furious.
“Team Trump has earnestly been trying to work in good faith with Kemp over the past several months," said one source close to Trump’s political operation. "There was already some annoyance over him selfishly punting on the Senate race because he has presidential ambitions in 2028, but people had gotten past that."
Kemp's decision to back Dooley, who has no political background or ties to Trump, over Reps. Buddy Carter or Mike Collins is viewed in the president's orbit as a “slap in the face.”
“People are pissed," said a second source close to Trump’s political operation. "Trump world is pissed."
A Trump insider said the president's inner circle is starting to see the Georgia GOP primary as a "proxy war" between Trump and Kemp, who rejected Trump’s attempts to overturn the state's 2020 election results, and Republican operatives aren't happy the governor went off on his own instead of coordinating with the White House and the Senate Republican apparatus.
“Nobody is on board with this s--t,” a GOP operative said. “It’s stupid. They can’t articulate the pathway forward. It’s Kemp thinking he’s going to exert his will over the White House to support a candidate that should’ve been him. If he wanted to have a say in this, he should’ve just run.”
A source with knowledge of the Trump-Kemp rift said the governor's move “all but guarantees Trump goes against Dooley.”
“He’s putting Dooley in a really bad position, because no one in Trump’s operation had anything against him, but Kemp pushing him like this could really sour him with them,” said one of the sources close to Trump’s political operation.