Trump Gives Away Game for Why He Backed Ken Paxton in Texas Primary

Donald Trump made a final push ahead of the most expensive Senate primary in history.

To be a Donald Trump–endorsed political candidate, you must possess many qualities: integrity. Empathy. Intelligence. A love of the United States and all who inhabit it.

Just kidding! You don’t have to have any of those things. You just have to suck up to him more than the other guy.

The president made that clearer than ever in a post to Truth Social Sunday, in which he explained the complex reasons behind his endorsement of Ken Paxton in the Texas Republican Senate primary.

Paxton was “very loyal to your favorite President, ME,” Trump wrote. “Ken’s opponent was VERY disloyal to me.”

Trump’s obsession with fealty over everything is quite pronounced in the case of Paxton, an awful person with a long history of scandals.

Paxton cheated on his wife, was impeached by the state House on corruption charges, and illegally helped donors by targeting their enemies as state attorney general. Last month, his office offered a sweetheart plea deal to a repeated child molester that would see the offender spend just one day in jail.

Paxton should never be able to get the endorsement of a sitting president. It’s not even like his Republican rival, John Cornyn, doesn’t suck up to Trump. But Paxton has given the president lavish, consistent support over the years. It’s as simple as that for our commander in chief.

Paxton will face Cornyn in a runoff Tuesday night that is projected to go Trump’s way. The winner will advance to the general in November against Democrat James Talarico, a progressive Christian with a quiet cadence and the face of a Boy Scout.

Talarico won a close primary of his own against Representative Jasmine Crockett in March. He will have an uphill battle in a state as red and as anti-abortion as Texas, but is actually ahead in recent polls. Election pundits such as Nate Silver are giving Talarico a good shot, particularly if the controversial Paxton wins Tuesday.

Trump Goes on Weird Posting Spree Ahead of Third Medical Check-Up

The president is making his third visit to Walter Reed in 13 months—and to mark the occasion, he went on a bizarre early morning posting spree.

President Trump went on yet another Truth Social posting spree over the holiday weekend, sharing Facebook-style memes into the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday. This comes as he is set to get his third medical check up in 13 months at Walter Reed Medical Center on Tuesday. 

He began the morning with a stream of low effort, low quality memes that look straight out of the bot-filled comment section of any of Trump’s Truth Social posts. At 5:52 a.m., he criticized Obama’s Iran deal and then posted affirmations about being the “dealmaker in chief” and the “man who saved America. And at 6:01 a.m, he posted an AI meme depicting former President Joe Biden slumped over sleeping at his desk, melted ice cream in front of him, and Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leering behind him with an autopen—perhaps the worst post of them all given that Trump has fallen asleep on camera in a similar position countless times in his second term. 

Since Monday evening, Trump twice posted an image about how the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., is larger than multiple skyscrapers—something that no one with real problems should care about, especially given that he’s comparing a pool in the ground to Ground Zero and the Empire State building. 

He also shared a basic oil painting of a suburban house with a white picket fence covered in American flags, captioning it “Trump’s America in 2026.” The image communicates virtually nothing while ignoring the fact that the reality of Trump’s America right now is extremely bleak. 

Trump then posted another meme, this time stating that Former President Barack Obama’s Iran strategy was just “pallets of cash,” while his grand solution is dropping bombs in the Gulf. Yet Trump is doing both—he’s reportedly considered offering Iran $20 billion for their uranium stockpiles and attacked Iranian ships on Monday. And there is still no real end to the war in sight, as warhawks from both the Democratic and Republican Party come out against Trump’s most recent proposed deal. 

The president’s strange posting marathons appear to be increasing as his approval ratings on the economy and the Iran war absolutely tank.  

ICE Agents Pepper-Spray Democratic Senator at Protest

The Department of Homeland Security is blaming Senator Andy Kim after he was pepper-sprayed.

Democratic Senator Andy Kim was met with force when trying to defuse tensions at an immigration detention center on Monday. 

Kim was pepper-sprayed, along with dozens of other protesters, outside of Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, Monday after visiting the center to look into reports of detainees on a hunger strike protesting poor conditions at the facility. Kim and other Democratic New Jersey officials were allowed to enter.

When Kim left the building, he saw that protesters had formed a human chain in front of the facility, and he said he tried to get in the middle of the situation to “de-escalate the situation” and avoid a “physical clash” after ICE said they planned to push vehicles through the crowd.  But then, Kim said, “that’s when [the agents] started to shoot at us with pepper balls as well as using the pepper spray.” ​A medic at the scene had to wash Kim’s eyes out with water. 

@njdotcom Federal agents fired upon protesters outside Delaney Hall in Newark using what appeared to be pepper balls following days of unrest at the privately run ICE jail. U.S. Sen. Andy Kim can be seen in the video standing between protesters and ICE agents during an arrest. Kim later said he was caught in a cloud of pepper spray in the melee. 🎥 Jelani Gibson ♬ original sound - NJ.com | New Jersey News

Federal agents fired upon protesters outside Delaney Hall in Newark using what appeared to be pepper balls following days of unrest at the privately run ICE jail. U.S. Sen. Andy Kim can be seen in the video standing between protesters and ICE agents during an arrest. Kim later said he was caught in a cloud of pepper spray in the melee. 🎥 Jelani Gibson

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that conditions at the facility were fine, claiming that detainees have access to phones, food, clean water, clothing, and medical care, and called the protesters “agitators.” 

“This is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks,” said acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis in another statement, denying that a hunger strike or “subprime conditions” exist at Delaney Hall. “These sanctuary politicians should be thanking ICE law enforcement for removing murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and drug traffickers from their communities.” 

Kim, who said he had to call DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to gain access to the facility, disputed that statement. The senator said he spoke to “as many detainees as possible,” who related “just the inhumane........

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