With the primary results coming in this week, a pattern is emerging, longtime congressional staffer Aaron Fritschner posted on X: President Donald Trump's kingmaker status is fading.
The most recent example of this took place in Minnesota, where MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell lost his primary for the Republican gubernatorial nomination to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth. Lindell has long been a MAGA presence, being one of the strongest promoters of 2020 election conspiracy theories, and he had Trump's backing — but it didn't get him over the finish line.
That's not the only recent case of a Trump endorsee crashing and burning, Fritschner noted.
In a key Michigan congressional race, he pointed out, Navy veteran Amir Hassan, another Trump pick, went down in a shock loss to Thomas Smith, a candidate who had already dropped out of the race weeks before yet somehow got a majority of Republican primary voters.
In Tennessee, scandal-plagued incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles had Trump's backing, and some support from the GOP establishment, but it wasn't enough to save him as he was defeated by former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Trump surprised the state establishment by throwing his full weight behind the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's sister, Darline Graham, to take his place for a full term, but even though she leads the primary, she didn't come close to the 50 percent threshold and will face off against Rep. Ralph Norman in an August runoff.
The bottom line, said Fritschner, is that "this is the primary electorate, the most faithful MAGA voters," and yet even with them, "he’s weakening before our eyes."