Who’s behind all this bad advice to Trump in re: NC politics?

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Has the ‘Drain The Swamp’ slogan been retired?  That’s a pretty good question, given some of the recent North Carolina-related pronouncements / endorsements from Donald Trump and his team.

Trump has heralded many good ideas during his time on the national political stage.  But some of his personnel decisions (like, say, Nikki Haley) have left many a conservative admirer scratching their head.

Currently, there is an incredible fascination with endorsing candidates during primary elections.  There used to be a popular slogan in the politics game: Stay in your own lane.  

(In other words, your intervention in someone’s primary race almost guarantees their intervention in your race the very next time your name is on a ballot.  Why create even more enemies / opponents?)

This year, candidates for everything from city council to school board to governor are throwing up endorsements onto social media.  It doesn’t seem to matter if the endorser is a little-known podcast host from out-of-state. 

Back in 2020, a Trump endorsement of Thom Tillis chased away a well-funded primary challenger.  (Never mind that Tillis had been working overtime to kill the border wall and to aid Mitch McConnell in hobbling the rest of the Trump agenda.)

This year, we’ve had a Trump endorsement of lobbyist Addison McDowell, who is locked in a tight primary race in the 6th congressional district.  Can you get more swampy than a lobbyist? 

Trump has also endorsed Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson – who has no significant accomplishments and has a family business devoted to passing on welfare checks — for governor.  Robinson is one of three candidates – and arguably the least qualified –  in the GOP primary for governor.

Trump has also endorsed House speaker and scandal-magnet Tim Moore for US House.  Moore is involved in a three-way primary for the 14th congressional district.  Anything even remotely conservative that came out of the General Assembly had to be accomplished by leaning on Moore and fiercely twisting both of his arms.  He’s no conservative.  Thom Tillis, his predecessor, taught him everything he knows about the politics game. And we all know how treacherous Tillis has been in DC.   The DC Swamp is ready to welcome Moore with open arms.  He’s one of THEM.  (Tillis and Moore even share the same political consultant.)

So, WHY is a guy who has run two elections on ‘draining the swamp’ running around endorsing so many ‘swamp creatures’?  SOMEBODY with ties to North Carolina has to be whispering bad advice into Trump’s ear.  Who could it be?

A good guess might be Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump political adviser who will reportedly be the campaign’s liaison with the RNC.   Some of you might remember LaCivita for his role as senior strategist for the disastrous 2016 reelection campaign of then-Gov. Pat McCrory.  (McCrory, as thanks to all his GOP supporters, is now one of the public faces of the ‘No Labels’ third-party movement seeking to throw a monkey wrench into the 2024 presidential election.)

That 2016 experience would have put LaCivita in close contact with all the NCGOPe and ‘swamp’ characters who are now being endorsed by The Donald. 

Currently,  NCGOP chairman and lobbyist Michael Whatley is being heralded as The Donald’s pick for RNC chairman.   Two of Whatley’s election victories as chairman were tainted with all kinds of voting irregularities.  That’s kind of ironic, given his role as vote-fraud enforcer for the RNC.  The state party’s fundraising has been lackluster to say the least.  The numbers are padded with pass-throughs from the RNC and other RNC affiliates.  The state party under Whatley has been noticeably hostile to conservatives.  Party operatives have been found occasionally meddling in primaries against conservative candidates.  Whatley is essentially Ronna with a different chromosome configuration.  Moving him into the big office changes very little. 

Trump is getting way too much advice to elevate people who will end up screwing him and his agenda — and eventually US — in the long run.  This phenomenon up-ended and sabotaged Trump quite a bit during his first go-around.  If a closer look is not taken at the people Trump is being urged to bless this year, it can happen all over again.