Trump Dumps on Allies with Indiana Senate Endorsements

Let’s talk about these Trump endorsements, because we have told you for a long time—and this is not a negative comment on the president in terms of how he does his job or anything else—but this is a reality, and we would be lying to you if we didn’t say it. Donald Trump does not care about Indiana. Donald Trump does not care about anything but Trump and the Trump orbit. Now, does that mean I don’t think Donald Trump cares about his country? I think he does. Do I think Donald Trump wants to do things that are for the betterment of the country? I think he does. Does he do some things that I don’t think are working out well for the country? See the spending. See currently the engagement with Iran. Absolutely. But do I think Donald Trump cares about America? Yes. However, I’m not going to lie to you. I’m not going to pull your chain. I’m not going to insult your intelligence and tell you something other than the fact that a lot of what Trump does is about how it impacts Trump. One of the things about the world we live in now is that it’s a digital age. I saw a stat the other day that was fascinating to me. Only about one in every four or five people in this country is even on Twitter. I’m not talking about actively engaging with Twitter—just having a Twitter account. I think for so many of us, especially people who are really into politics, conservative politics, or social media, we lose sight of that fact. That’s not a majority of the people. It’s not in any way to demean Twitter. I use Twitter. I love Twitter. We do the video every morning talking about what we’re going to discuss on the show. Twitter can be an important tool. Facebook can be an important tool. But the majority of people are not living their life through Twitter. Sometimes I think we get sucked into the very loud voices on Twitter. If you operate in that community, you think that’s everyone. It’s not. It really isn’t. One of the mistakes people make involves these conservative influencers, for lack of a better term. We talked about this yesterday with Laura Loomer going after Daniel Elliott, the state treasurer. These influencers are often seen as authoritative voices, but when they talk about specific politicians—especially state politicians in places they don’t live—they’re getting fed information. I can tell you that from my own perspective. People call me all the time and say, “Hey, you should talk about blah blah blah.” That happens to every member of the media. I’m not saying I’m something special. People called me all the time with the old radio show. They call me all the time now. They say, “Have you thought about blah blah blah?” I know that with about 95 percent of those phone calls, someone is calling me with an agenda. They want something. So my process is that I hear them out. I ask some questions. I usually have what I call a sort of stooge test. I’m giving you behind-the-scenes stuff here, but that’s what we do on this program. I open my life up to you guys. When somebody calls me with this stuff, I have some stooge test questions I’ll ask. Nothing underhanded or nefarious. Just things I may already know the answer to, or things that would raise a red flag depending on how they’re answered. Based on how those things get answered, I decide whether the topic interests me and whether there’s legitimacy to the claim. It’s always shock and awe when people call you. “You won’t believe about…” I probably will believe it. Then I proceed from there. I do my own research and determine whether I’m going to cover it or use it as a topic on the show. That happens all the time to me. I am certain that these internet influencers who have no connection to Indiana, or deep knowledge or love of Indiana—they’re not from here—are getting fed information too. I’m certain that is what happened with Laura Loomer. I think Laura Loomer is interesting. I think she’s entertaining. But I think she got horrible information on Daniel Elliott when she talked about him not fighting back against DEI or ushering DEI into state government. There is tangible, crystal-clear evidence—taking emotion out of it—that Daniel Elliott fought against DEI as state treasurer. He removed BlackRock from public investments because of their liberal ESG investment policies. There were numerous news stories about it. It all played out publicly. You don’t have to take my word for it. She was just wrong. That means she wasn’t doing research. She was getting fed information. If the pro-MAGA movement or pro-Trump movement is supposed to be about taking on the elites, getting the elites out of government, and stopping crony capitalism, then consider this: Daniel Elliott has been the one high-profile voice in the statehouse against giving billions of dollars to the Chicago Bears. That’s public record too. He was on our show talking about it. Clearly, Laura Loomer wasn’t doing her research on this. People get things wrong all the time. I get things wrong all the time. But the point is that you have to be extremely careful with anyone’s endorsement. Anyone’s endorsement. You shouldn’t vote based on one person’s endorsement no matter where they live. But especially when you’re taking information from people who don’t live in our state. More and more in the internet era, these influencers become rising stars and extremely influential voices. They become a sort of gold standard. “Well, Candace Owens said,” or “Laura Loomer said,” or “Tucker Carlson said,” or when he was alive and active, “Charlie Kirk said.” None of these people know our state. They know about our state based on what people feed them. But they’re not boots on the ground. They’re not here every day. They’re not paying property taxes here. They’re not getting hit with our utility bills. None of it. All of that brings us back to Trump. When Trump talks about Indiana, he knows next to nothing about our state. He’s not part of our General Assembly. He’s not here for the discussions. He wasn’t at the IURC meeting we’re going to talk about later about skyrocketing utility bills. When we put a thousand people in the statehouse for the property tax rally, did Trump offer any support? No. It was a massive deal. It was covered by basically every major media outlet in the city. It would have helped millions of people afford to stay in their homes. Did Trump say anything? No. He had no idea what was going on. Has Trump said anything about Braun trying to raise taxes by $6.5 billion with the I-70 toll? No. He doesn’t know any of that is happening. He’s not aware of our state, and I’m not faulting him for that. No president would be aware of what’s happening in a state they’re not from unless it’s some major national issue. So when Trump endorses someone, you have to realize there’s no real criteria to it. Especially with Trump. It’s simple. Does this person like me? Does this person support me? Has this person done what I said? That’s how he operates. This is why for months I’ve been talking about the six challengers running in Republican Senate primaries who are basing their entire campaigns on Trump’s endorsement. I’ve said how disappointed I am that people like Paula Copenhaver and Brenda Wilson haven’t taken stands on important issues affecting their communities. And look, I’m not shedding tears if incumbents get beaten. I’m not taking a side either way because many of these incumbents haven’t voted in ways worthy of re-election. But these challengers had an opportunity. Imagine if all six of them were running on a unified agenda about property taxes, utility bills, and fighting tolling. They would be more effective in their campaigns and would enter office with a mandate. Instead, they tied themselves to Trump’s endorsement as their sword and shield. That’s a horrible way to run a campaign. Even within the Republican Party, Trump doesn’t have universal support. There was a poll from the American Research Group showing Trump had a 72 percent approval rating among Republicans. That means 28 percent don’t approve. And even among the 72 percent, that doesn’t mean they love him or think he’s infallible. They just think he’s doing an okay job. The actual hardcore Trump base is probably about 45 percent of Republican voters. Do the math. That’s not 50 percent. And a lot of the people who love Trump only vote when Trump himself is on the ballot. So running a campaign based solely on Trump’s endorsement is a recipe for disaster. Which brings us to yesterday. Donald Trump endorsed Liz Brown in Fort Wayne and Ron Alting in Lafayette. Both are incumbent senators. Both are liberals and major obstacles to the conservative movement and good government in Indiana. Liz Brown has been the number one obstacle to constitutional carry and meaningful immigration reform in Indiana. She is also public enemy number one to Trump’s two biggest supporters in Indiana: Attorney General Todd Rokita and U.S. Senator Jim Banks. Both of them have been major allies of Trump and major supporters of challengers trying to defeat incumbent senators. They hate Liz Brown. Publicly. Not just dislike. They hate her. Yet Trump endorsed her. So Trump essentially took a colossal dump on two of his biggest supporters in Indiana—people who have done the most to help him. Indy reporter Stephen Whitmer reported that Rokita gave $50,000 to Liz Brown’s challenger. These guys are all-in on getting rid of Liz Brown. And Trump rewards them by endorsing her. Why? Because all Trump knew was that she supported redistricting. Ron Alting in Lafayette is similar. He’s a super liberal senator who has done immense damage to the state. Trump endorsed him too. Meanwhile, one of the biggest supporters of Alting’s challenger, Richard Basgby, is supported by Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith. Trump just undermined them as well. All of this proves the point. Trump is endorsing people he believes are loyal to him, not people who are good for Indiana. And why would he know who’s good for Indiana? Frankly, it’s beneath the president of the United States to weigh in on Indiana state senate primaries. It’s strange. Did George Bush ever do that? Obama? Reagan? No. They had more important things to do. Gas is four dollars a gallon. Maybe the president should focus on that instead of Liz Brown and Ron Alting. And every member of the media should ask the six candidates who built their campaigns around Trump’s endorsement one question. Do you endorse Liz Brown and Ron Alting? If they say no, they’re phonies. Fraudulent and hypocritical. Because they’ve had months to build a platform based on issues that matter to you, and they refused to do it. Why? Because running on real issues is hard. You have to do research. You have to read. You have to understand policy. When I ran for public office, I promised to cut property tax rates. People told me it couldn’t be done in the tax cap era. Year one we cut property taxes by 13.5 percent. It was the largest single-year voluntary municipal property tax reduction in Indiana history. Over four years we cut rates by 18.5 percent. Why? Because I did the homework. I read. I immersed myself in the issue. These candidates haven’t done that. They’re lazy. If they cared about you, they’d talk about the issues that matter to you. Instead, they made Trump’s endorsement their silver bullet. Now Trump has endorsed Ron Alting and Liz Brown. And now they have to own it. What a missed opportunity to actually help you.