Republicans Freak Out as Trump’s Primary Candidates Rack Up Wins

One person described Donald Trump’s choices as “self-owns.”

MAGA loyalists may be winning their primaries—but the Republican Party isn’t so sure that their winning streak will last through November.

Several of Donald Trump’s endorsees won their primaries over the last week, beating out prominent conservative Trump critics including Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie. But the president’s wins are creating a new headache for his legislative allies.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are concerned that Trump’s exclusive focus on pushing his political acolytes will come at a cost to their legislative majority in the upper and lower chambers, Politico reported Tuesday.

“Those so-called victories over the last couple weeks are just a mirage. They are self-owns,” one senior Senate Republican operative told the outlet. “We’re not actually beating Democrats, and we’re not actually advancing legislation. Instead, gas is up 45 percent due to our actions and the President’s decision to go to war with Iran. He’s focused on the ballroom. He’s announced a $1.8 billion restitution fund with zero details or congressional authority to do so. It just is crazy.”

Cassidy, in the few days since his recent loss, has morphed into something of a free agent apparently unbeholden to the Republican Party or the president: On Tuesday, the Louisiana lawmaker voted in favor of the war powers resolution for the first time, advancing the Democratic-led effort to end the Iran war.

“There are still many, many months to go before the election, and this president is going to have to continue to deal and work with, and partner with, or battle with this group of lawmakers,” Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told reporters after the vote. “Even though Bill Cassidy lost his primary, he is still a voting member of the Senate until January.… So the president may have just opened some opportunities for people.”

Lawmakers are also reportedly grumbling about Trump’s choice to endorse Ken Paxton, Texas’s scandal-laden attorney general, for the Lone Star State’s GOP senatorial primary instead of Senator John Cornyn. Trump directly contradicted Senate Majority Leader John Thune by picking his own man in the race, and created new problems for the GOP’s fundraising arm, which had already spent some $90 million supporting Cornyn’s candidacy.

Trump’s preference boils down to loyalty, according to Punchbowl News: Paxton has been “extremely loyal” to the president, while Cornyn was apparently “very late in backing” Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.

It was a gamble and a loss for the nation’s conservative party, which had twisted and wrought itself in order to earn the president’s favor. Cornyn has done much to support other Republican candidates over the course of his career, becoming one of the party’s biggest earners by bringing in more than $400 million for auxiliary races.

Paxton and Cornyn are slated for a runoff race on May 26. But Trump’s choice could cost Republicans more than the Senate seat as the party is forced to decide whether to divert more financial resources to Texas in support of Cornyn or to reserve the funds for battleground states such as Georgia, Michigan, Maine, and Ohio.

Further still, the president appears to be throwing caution to the wind as he fails to adequately address—or solve—the nation’s teetering oil and gas crisis. The average cost of gas nationwide is $4.53 per gallon, with large swaths of the U.S. pushing $5 a gallon, according to the AAA’s price tracker. That’s about 50 percent higher than prices were before Trump sparked a war with Iran. In some areas of California, such as Mono County, fuel costs are above $7 per gallon.

Meanwhile, Trump is planning to spend billions of dollars to reshape Washington in his image by way of his White House ballroom project, the “Triumphal Arch” near Arlington National Cemetery, repainting the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall, installing a golf course next to the Potomac, and plastering his face and name on federal buildings.

Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Finds Its First Shady Applicant

One of Trump’s former staffers is already attempting to cash in on the “anti-weaponization fund.”

Donald Trump’s allies are racing to get a piece of his $1.8 billion slush fund.

Michael Caputo served in the Trump administration during his first term as a campaign strategist and spokesperson at the Department of Health and Human Services, where he interfered with CDC findings on Covid. He is now seeking $2.7 million in damages from the government, claiming his life was upended after being investigated as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe in 2016.

“I was the target of the illegal Crossfire Hurricane investigation and our family suffered greatly during that dark era of political weaponization,” Caputo wrote in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche obtained by CNN. He claimed he was still under FBI investigation as recently as December 2025.

“They found nothing; we lost everything,” he wrote.

Caputo resided in Russia in the 1990s while an employee of the U.S. government. The Mueller report determined he had helped arrange a meeting between Roger Stone—Trump’s campaign manager and close associate—and a Russian agent, for the purpose of sharing information about Hillary Clinton.

But who cares what FBI investigations say when your buddy is president? Now Caputo can get a huge chunk of taxpayer money because he thinks he was wronged by people Trump doesn’t like.

Caputo is the first to publicly seek damages after the slush fund was created, but he won’t be the last.

The Department of Justice has not said exactly who can profit off the fund, but hundreds of Trump allies—including January 6 rioters and members of Trump’s own super PAC—could theoretically get a piece of the pie.

Massie Delivers Trump a Major Warning After His Primary Defeat

The president has turned Thomas Massie into an even bigger enemy.

Despite losing his primary battle Tuesday night, Representative Thomas Massie came out swinging in his concession speech. 

The Kentucky congressman came out to chants of “Massie, Massie!” from his supporters, and referenced AIPAC’s backing of his Trump-endorsed opponent, Ed Gallrein. 

“I would’ve come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv,” Massie quipped. “I did get the call through though, I........

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