Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was ridiculed for posting a classic fable warning against placing trust in unworthy individuals after his Republican primary loss.
President Donald Trump extended a last-minute endorsement to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that tipped this week's runoff election away from Cornyn, who had courted the president's favor during the campaign and even proposed naming a U.S. highway after him.
He seemingly made reference to the betrayal Friday morning in a social media post.
"An old, but apt fable: A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across," Cornyn posted on X. "The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both.
"The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: 'I am sorry, but I couldn't help myself. It's my character,'" Cornyn's post added, citing Wikipedia.
Other social media users wondered what the longtime GOP senator expected from the 79-year-old president.
"Ouch," winced journalist Carl Quintanilla.
"So President Trump is the scorpion and you're the frog?" asked Stephen Richer, a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.
"The reason they wrote these fables is so you’d learn them as a child, not when you’re 74," reminded The Bulwark's Will Saletan.
"John Cornyn posting 'here's an old fable that I just looked up on Wikipedia' is just so beautiful," marveled writer Ian Boudreau. "'We have an old saying in Texas -- hang on a sec here, Siri what's the one about fool me once?'"
"I don't know why, but the funniest thing about this is tagging Wikipedia," agreed NPR's Linda Holmes.
"It's genuinely funny a 74 year old senator got played by the most obvious conman ever and is now posting passive aggressively like a pre-teen who hasn't learned subtlety yet," pointed out popular Bluesky user Grimm.
"Let us not judge or be judged, since each of us must work through our grief in ways that best suit our own circumstances," cautioned journalist Bill Grueskin. "That said, this is amazing."
