GOP nominee scrubbed thousands of posts — then his treason rhetoric surfaced anyway

Thomas Smith, the Republican nominee for a competitive Michigan congressional seat, deleted social media accounts containing thousands of posts revealing years of inflammatory and conspiratorial rhetoric, according to a new analysis.

The 75-year-old retired General Motors employee and Flint-area small-business owner won an improbable primary victory last month over the Trump-endorsed candidate despite having suspended his campaign before Election Day, and CNN's KFile reviewed 13,000 archived posts from Smith's deleted accounts, run under the name JarHeadSalsa after his family's salsa business.

In February 2025, the account reposted a message addressed to Trump reading, "There are traitors within who deserve to be put on trial for treason. What's the punishment for treason again?" — an apparent reference to a crime punishable by death.

Smith repeatedly amplified accusations that political figures, including Barack Obama, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), were traitors deserving punishment. He also shared birther-style posts referring to an "evil Kenyan-run White House," and reposted messages targeting Muslim Americans, including one calling Islam "a cancer" and another urging the deportation of the "Somali infestation." One post from his own account, published two days before the primary, asked, "why is pedophilia wrong on Epstein's island but not in Islam?"

The account also shared posts claiming the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, which Smith attended, was staged by federal agents, and messages supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Two weeks before the riot, Smith had urged followers to join him in Washington, writing, "Having millions of supporters surrounding the Capitol will be epic."

In a statement to CNN, Smith said, "Like thousands of peaceful patriots, I attended President Trump's rally in Washington... I did not enter the Capitol or trespass on restricted grounds. My focus is on delivering common sense results for Michigan and defeating Abdul El-Sayed's partner in socialism Kristen McDonald Rivet at the ballot box this fall." He did not disavow his older posts, telling the Detroit News, "People can dig through every 10-year-old tweet I ever wrote. That is fine."

Smith briefly suspended his campaign in July, citing "prayerful consideration," and endorsed a rival, but remained on the ballot and won anyway. His campaign has since undergone a professional overhaul, replacing a bare-bones website with a polished one emphasizing "The Constitution, Faith, Freedom."

He will face first-term Democratic Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet in a district Trump carried by 3 points in 2024, even as McDonald Rivet won her House race by roughly 6. The Cook Political Report moved the race from "Lean Democratic" to "Likely Democratic" after Smith's win.