President Donald Trump admitted that he ignored advice from his aides to publicly humiliate his own MAGA candidate for Senate.
Texas Attorney General Ken 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.
Nailing Talarico, though, is part of the GOP plan to get Paxton elected, whereas ripping his own endorsee seems like a head-scratching move—except that Trump appears to have noticed that it lands with the crowd.
During his rambling speech at the Republican Party midterm convention, which has been nicknamed “Trump-a-palooza,” the president spoke about the 63-year-old’s appearance, stunningly announcing that he may “not be the best-looking guy.”
The MAGA audience at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas lapped it up, laughing loudly and clapping like seals.
The planned speech Trump read from the teleprompter stuck close to Paxton’s agenda and his importance in warding off the Dems. Indeed, he was initially glowing about his preferred senator.
“We have to elect him. He’s really something special,” Trump, 80, said around 15 minutes into the address on Wednesday.
He then admitted he would defy his advisers’ advice and go off script. He then launched into a familiar review of Paxton’s looks.
“I have to say this about Ken. It’s so insulting, and I hope he doesn’t get insulted. They said, ‘Sir, you can’t say that!’ I said, ‘I have to.’ They didn’t even put it on the teleprompter, but I don’t use the teleprompter that much,” he began, getting laughs from the baying crowd.
He continued: “They said, ‘Sir, you can’t say it! It’s not good.’ But I said it once before, and he went through the roof. I’ve gotta say it again. So, they just said how wonderful he is, and how we have to—but I said it a little differently because the fact is that some may not like the way he dresses. I don’t. Although tonight he looked very spiffy in his blue suit, I must tell you.”
His rambling went on, with a review of how Paxton sounds. “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.”
“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.”
Then came the conclusion to the rant. “‘Sir, please don’t, Sir!’ 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.
“So, I am very sorry, Ken. I hated to do it. And I’ll go backstage: ‘Sir, you shouldn’t have said that. You’ve given them a soundbite.’”
Trump labored his point and made the feared soundbite a lot more concise. “Let me tell you—it’s true. He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen, but you know what he is? He’s the greatest attorney general in America, and he deserves to be your next senator.
“I’m sorry, Ken. Where the hell is he? I’m so sorry. He’ll never speak to me again, but that’s OK.”
This is not the first time Trump has made comments about Paxton’s appearance. In fact, he’s been workshopping the new bit regularly of late. He rolled it out just a week ago at the White House Rose Garden, to scattered laughter.
At a dinner that Paxton did not attend, Trump was keen to assert the importance of taking Texas. But the looks-obsessed president couldn’t help himself.
“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.”
“But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps,” he continued, glossing over the fact that the attorney general was impeached by the Texas House on bribery and corruption-related charges before being acquitted by the Texas Senate.
“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. Earlier in the day, Trump 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.”
