Donald Trump has humiliated a MAGA midterms hopeful yet again, and this time the reaction was caught on camera.
The president, 80, has developed a taste for roasting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appearance. He revisited the topic during his second speech at the Republican Party midterm convention after making similar jibes the night before.
This time, however, the Senate hopeful’s fixed grin was caught on camera as Trump once again appraised Paxton’s looks.
“And I said something yesterday, and I don’t know if he’ll ever talk to me again. Perhaps he will. But I said it. My people said, ‘Please don’t say that.’ So I won’t say it, but I’ll tell you what I was thinking about saying,” Trump said on Thursday at the Dallas, Texas, event.
“I said, ‘I don’t like the way Ken dresses,” he continued. At this point, the camera switched to a grimacing Paxton. “Although I also said he looked really sharp in that suit yesterday. I thought it was spiffy.”
Paxton is running to replace Republican Sen. John Cornyn, whom he beat in a primary after securing Trump’s endorsement. He’s up against Democratic upstart James Talarico, 37, a regular target for Trump’s taunts.
But Trump has turned his attention to Paxton of late, despite his aides pleading with him not to. During Wednesday’s speech in Dallas, as well as making sartorial remarks, Trump said of his ally: “But they may not like the way he talks. I can see that, you know. Not everybody. A lotta people don’t like the way I talk either, but we do get crowds—there’s no question.”
He added: “And then they say, ‘You can’t say this, Sir. It’s so insulting. Please, Sir.’ These are my analysts that get a lot of money for telling me a lot of nonsense.”
He rounded it off by saying: “So I talked about dress. I talked about talk, and I even said this—but, you know, some people don’t like the way I look either. You may not like the way he looks. But here’s the news: in the history of Texas, he is the single greatest attorney general you’ve ever had, and maybe the top attorney general in the whole United States.”
Paxton was impeached by the Texas House on bribery and corruption-related charges before being acquitted by the Texas Senate in 2023.
Last Wednesday at the White House Rose Garden, Trump attempted a similar gag, to scattered laughter.
“Ken Paxton, you might not like the way he dresses. And I say this, it’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it,” Trump said, shrugging his shoulders. “You might not... like the way he looks. You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews.”
Paxton was not there. “But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps,” Trump continued. “He was one of the best in the entire country. And that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great—or, than anything, frankly.”
It was the third time Trump had raised the issue of Paxton’s likability last Wednesday alone, having told reporters at the Oval Office, “And you know, we have a guy named Ken Paxton. And some people don’t like the way he dresses, or some people don’t like the way he interviews or talks. But, you know, the one thing about him, he was the best attorney general in this country for the last 10 years or more.”
And in an interview on the Lt. Dan Podcast, Trump once again hailed Paxton as a “phenomenal” attorney general, but not without mentioning that “some people don’t like an interview that he’ll do or something.”
