Trump’s endorsement of Republican backfires as huge embarrassment

Attorney General Ken Paxton greets then-President Donald Trump as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick follows. Photo: Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via REUTERS

President Donald Trump has been an emphatic supporter of Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, though lately that enthusiasm has been wavering.

The Bulwark's Joe Perticone and Sonny Bunch spoke on a Friday podcast about Trump's insult to the Texas Republican that Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has labeled a terrible candidate.

Perticone explained that one minute Trump is "saying we need to make this guy the next senator. He was great defender of all things Trump." But then he pivots and attacks by saying Paxton "looks pretty bad. Like he dresses horribly. And then he just kept bringing it up repeatedly on separate occasions."

The campaign and politics reporter noted one of the frequent phrases Trump deploys, "some people say," but Perticone said that's actually code for "I am saying."

The analysts play a few clips of Trump saying that Paxton dresses like a schlub, look and talks funny or that he's terrible in interviews.

"You might not like the way he looks," Trump said at one point. 'You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews. But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps."

Perticone noted that this isn't unusual for Trump to focus on the way someone looks. One of his frequently used compliments is that someone he hired for a given position looks like they're "out of central casting."

"This is perfect Trump, in a nutshell. It's him just being like — this guy is one of my top allies. I really want him in the Senate.
But I hate the way he looks. I hate his clothes. And he can't contain himself from bringing it up every time he mentions Ken Paxton because he's, like, 'I got to advocate for this guy, but I can't stand his look,' because he likes everyone to look a certain way," Perticone continued.

They recalled the bizarre story of Trump buying all of the male Cabinet members' shoes from his favorite vendor and pretending like he knew their exact shoe size, but getting them wrong. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, got shoes from the president that are so large that they are noticeable in photos.

The most recent example they addressed was Paxton wearing an Orlando Four Seasons dry-fit golf polo, massive shoes that look too big for him, tight-fitting khakis and a big bulge in his pocket. Perticone said he had a conspiracy theory about why Paxton may have dressed this way for a political event.

As Cornyn told the Texas Tribune recently, “Paxton’s a poor campaigner. He’s lazy and doesn’t raise money. And he basically is not offering a very compelling case for his election."

So, Perticone thinks that Paxton was actually playing golf before this event. He doesn't think that the shoes even belong to Paxton.

"They're clearly not his shoes. It reminded me of when you're a little kid and your dad says, 'Take out the garbage.' And so you grab the garbage and you go to the door and there's only one pair of shoes and it's your dad's. So you stick your little feet into these giant shoes as you walk out to the garbage cans. That's what it looks like," said Perticone.

"This has happened to me. I've gone and played golf, you leave home in your spikes and you don't bring a pair of shoes to change into," he recalled.

According to the theory, Paxton obviously couldn't show up in golf spikes, so he asked to borrow someone's shoes.

"And so, that's why he's wearing size 14's," Perticone's conspiracy theory continued.

The issue with the bulge in his pocket, he thinks, is a golf ball.

Another issue they raise is that Paxton clearly wasn't wearing an undershirt to cover his noticeable chest protrusions, which Trump has criticized other men for in the past.

The pre-event golf round may also account for the reason that Paxton was so lethargic and unenthusiastic. "'Cause he just played 18 holes!"

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