President Donald Trump has found a way to explain the growing pile of Republicans who lost their primaries after he endorsed them: they were doomed anyway, and he only backed them to be nice.
In a Truth Social post late Sunday, Trump insisted his endorsements are "stronger than ever" before disowning the losers.
"The few that lost were done out of loyalty," he wrote. "It was almost impossible for them to win but, I felt obligated to go with them because they were, in my opinion, good people!"
The spin arrives after a brutal stretch in which Trump's endorsement "loser" list hit double digits — roughly a dozen Republicans this cycle, nine of them in just three weeks. MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who Trump cheered on in Minnesota's governor's race only to watch him lose by double digits, was among the losers, along with Rep. Andy Ogles in Tennessee, Rep. Randy Feenstra in Iowa, and Reps. Cory Mills and Catalina Lauf in Florida.
It's a sharp reversal from March, when Trump boasted that "almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot."
When Mills went down this month, Trump claimed he'd warned him off: "I told Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, a friend of mine, to get out of the Race, but he wouldn't listen." After Ogles lost, Trump said he'd "remained loyal" even though the congressman "had virtually no chance of winning."
The White House still insists Trump's is "the most powerful endorsement in the history of American politics."