President Donald Trump is coming to end the political career of a U.S. senator who has stuck his neck out for him, Joe Perticone wrote for The Bulwark on Tuesday — and it's a sight to behold.
"Republican elected officials, GOP operatives and staffers, military officers, and White House chiefs of staff seem to never learn that when they hand over their trust and loyalty to Trump, they can’t count on the president repaying it in kind," wrote Perticone. "Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy is the latest to realize this only after the president’s knife has been embedded firmly in his back."
Cassidy, a physician by training, has backed most of Trump's agenda, calling for him to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, and even confirming anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services while agonizing over his disinformation.
Trump, however, has repaid this by endorsing Rep. Julia Letlow to run a campaign against him — likely, Perticone noted, because he still hasn't forgiven Cassidy for the one time he voted to convict him at the Jan. 6 impeachment trial.
“Should she decide to enter this Race, Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” said Trump in a post to his Truth Social platform. Letlow announced a campaign shortly after.
"Cassidy had reportedly been telling his colleagues that he received assurances from White House staffers that Trump would remain neutral in the race, as he has done so far in the Texas GOP Senate primary between incumbent John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Wesley Hunt," noted Perticone. "Senate Majority Leader John Thune even reportedly begged Trump to not endorse Letlow and to instead allow Cassidy, with whom Thune recently campaigned, to run for re-election without the president’s finger on the scales. But Trump couldn’t resist. And Cassidy now finds himself stuck in a race that looks nearly impossible to win."
The bottom line, Perticone concluded, is that "by endorsing Letlow over Cassidy, Trump has made clear that he is still as impulsive and unreliable as ever when it comes to defending his party’s incumbents."
