Trump Called Cornyn One of GOP's Worst
Before Plans to Endorse Him in Ally Snub
Capitol Inside
March 6, 2026
The fiasco that the U.S. Senate race has become for the GOP took another wild turn on Friday when Attorney General Ken Paxton loyalists lit up social media with scorching reviews that President Donald Trump gave U.S. Senator John Cornyn when he branded him as the worst Republican in the chamber less than three years ago.
Trump was prepared to endorse Cornyn on the day after Tuesday's primary election before putting the announcement on hold for two consecutive days amid a hurricane of furious opposition that he failed to anticipate from pro-Paxton conservatives in the MAGA base. The president appeared to be caving to pressure from party establishment forces that have tried to convince him that Democrats would flip the Texas Senate if a candidate with substantial baggage like Paxton is the nominee in a fight with James Talarico this fall.
Talarico and the Democrats have been the major beneficiaries of Trump's intervention in the Texas runoff on Wednesday when he said he'd made a decision on an endorsement that he wasn't ready to make public for reasons unexplained. But the president's hesitation has given Paxton and his supporters an opportunity to make a case for the Trump plug - and the delaying of a Texas endorsement for another entire day could be a sign that he's rethinking the move before it's too late.
Trump would be setting himself for a feast on crow if he throws his massive might behind Cornyn as he'd been planning to do in light of highly degrading remarks he made about the senior Texas senator in recent years.
Trump lashed out at the veteran lawmaker in Truth Social posts in the summer and fall of 2023. The horrible reviews circulated on social media in MAGA ranks on Friday as opposition to a Cornyn endorsement mounted among members of the movement he created and rode into the White House twice in the past 10 years.
"Who is a worst Senator, John "The Stiff" Cornyn, or Mitt "The Loser" Romney of Massachusetts (Utah?)?" Trump wrote on his Truth Social page on July 25, 2023. "They are both weak, ineffective, and very bad for the Republican Party, and our Nation. With even modestly skilled opposition, they'll lose their next Election."
Trump accused Cornyn of conspiring with Joe Biden and the Democrats in a post on September 29 that year. "I hear that Old Crow Mitch McConnell, together with his small band of weak and ineffective RINOs like Mitt Romney, and "Hopeless" John Cornyn, are, as usual, trying to cobble together a series of massive concessions for Cryin' Chuck Schumber and the Lunatic Left, in order to bail out Crooked Joe Biden, THE WORST AND MOST CROOKED PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," Trump contended.
"The Old Crow, and his group of ten (plus) COWARDS, have savaged our Country by approving Trillions of Dollars for Green New Deal Insanity, and the Weaponization of our System of "Injustice."
Trump added in the post trashing the incumbent U.S. Senate member he's been planning to endorse with a corresponding demand that Paxton quit the race. Trump portrayed Cornyn as "always quick to surrender to Dems, giving them anything they want."
While independent analysts agree that Talarico would have better odds again Paxton, MAGA conservatives have righteously offended by the prospects of Trump endorsing anyone other than the Texas AG, a rock star in their eyes ever since he tried to overturn the 2020 general election on his behalf at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Paxton teased the possibility of dropping out of the race on Thursday if the Senate leadership would allow a vote to eliminate the threat of a Democratic filibuster that's been a roadblock to a voting restrictions measure that the Republicans have dubbed the Save America Act.
Paxton could follow the lead of disgraced U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales - a San Antonio Republican who bowed out of a runoff on Friday after being pressured to do so by a substantial number of GOP colleagues as a consequence of a scandalous relationship with a married staffer who he'd pressured before she killed herself last year.
Gonzales finished a close second to challenger Brandon Herrera in the primary election on Tuesday when they received 42 percent and 43 percent of the vote respectively. Paxton scored 41 percent of the primary vote compared to 42 percent for Cornyn.
But Paxton had a fraction of the money that Cornyn had to spend on the first round - with the incumbent and his supporters pouring $69 million into his campaign compared to $4 million that Paxton and his allies shelled out on the race before the first vote.
more to come ...
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