Trump Delivers Cruel Snub to MAGA Ultra-Loyalists on Election Eve
The president has stayed out of races where his presence could be a liability.
President Trump will not endorse supporters and sycophants of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement running in the November 4, 2025 elections.
With many MAGA candidates trailing in the polls, both at the state and city levels, the 79-year-old Trump is working to protect his image by avoiding endorsements of losing candidates.
“I don’t think he enjoys endorsing candidates he knows are going to lose,” Chris Saxman, a former Republican delegate from Virginia, told The Washington Post.
The Republican candidates Trump appears to consider likely losers are Jack Ciatarelli, running for governor of New Jersey, and Winsome Earl Sears, running for governor of Virginia. Trump has offered them lukewarm support, without fully engaging in their campaigns.
For Chiatarelli, who is slightly trailing New Jersey Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill in the latest pre-election polls, Trump offered his support and held a ten-minute conference call. Chiatarelli has always supported Trump, declaring in October that he gave him an “excellent” rating.
“I think the president is always right,” Chiatarelli stated at the time.
Republican strategists are divided on whether an increased Trump presence would be beneficial or detrimental to the 63-year-old former congressman.
“If Trump goes to the state on Sunday or Monday, Jack’s mobilization on Tuesday will be phenomenal,” a Republican official told the Washington Post.
But Marc Short, chief of staff to Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, told the newspaper that Republicans in New Jersey and Virginia, two Democratic states, would like to distance themselves from the president.
Trump has been less supportive of Winsome Earle-Sears, who trails Governor Abigail Spanberger by 10 points. Earle-Sears has said Republicans should “continue” Trump’s approach in his 2024 campaign.
Trump has been highly critical of his rival in Virginia, but when asked about his support for the 61-year-old Republican nominee, he simply replied, “Yes.” Earle-Sears was present when Trump addressed the U.S. Navy in Virginia in October, but he did not mention her once.
This contrasts sharply with Jason Myaris, the Republican nominee for Virginia attorney general, who has received Trump’s “full and unconditional endorsement.” Myaris, 49, is running against Jay Jones, who was embroiled in a 2022 text-message scandal in which he called for violence against some Republicans in the state. Myaris is leading in the polls.
Instead of supporting Republican candidates, Trump seems more concerned with casting doubt on the results of California’s “Prop 50,” an electoral redistricting initiative designed to counter attempts by Republican states to manipulate electoral districts to fill Congress with Republican seats in 2026.
On October 26, Trump Posted: “Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is! Millions of Ballots being ‘shipped.’ GET SMART REPUBLICANS, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!”
While reiterating his oft-repeated and unsubstantiated claim that mail-in voting is unfair in California elections, he took a different stance during a conference call in New Jersey, urging voters with mail-in ballots to return them.
