'Petty' Trump attacks Republicans in this red state while 'detonating' GOP chances in November

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House, February 20, 2026 (REUTERS)

Conservative Indianapolis Star opinion editor James Briggs says President Donald Trump should have better things to do than destroy good Republican politicians out of spite — especially with his party going bats in the months leading up to the November midterms.

Currently, Briggs said the White House is using “every tool at their disposal to pressure an unknown 34-year-old network engineer to drop out of a race for state Senate” to better help Trump primary a Republican who opposed his blatant bid to gerrymander Indiana races for the midterms.

“Alexandra Wilson is running against state Sen. Greg Goode in the Republican primary for District 38,” said Briggs. “The only reason anyone is paying attention to this race is because Goode is among seven Republican senators who voted against President Donald Trump's early redistricting scheme, which failed last year. Now Trump, Gov. Mike Braun and other Republicans are trying to defeat these senators out of vengeance.”

But Wilson has the same last name as Vigo County Councilor Brenda Wilson, a Trump ally that the president wants to oust Goode in the primary, and you wouldn’t want to “give some votes to the ‘wrong’ Wilson,” Briggs said.

Briggs said the whole drama — and Trump’s incessant campaign of vengeance against Republicans who dare defy him — is the purest example of a 'petty' man fighting the wrong battles with the wrong people.

“This conflict supposedly pertains to Trump's desire to retain a Republican majority in the U.S. House in November. That was the professed goal of early redistricting. But, in the meantime, Trump is detonating Republicans' electoral prospects with his Iran war, his depiction of himself as Jesus and other things that make him increasingly unpopular,” said Briggs. “Republicans are going to lose the House in November, and it has nothing to do with anything happening in Indiana.”

In the meantime, Briggs said Trump’s people have “used carrots, floating the prospect of jobs or board appointments. Then, when that didn't work, they used sticks in the form of veiled threats.”

"I think it's going to be really ugly," James Blair, Trump's deputy chief of staff, said in a recorded phone call with Alexandra Wilson — which she then handed over to local media.

“These are the futile exploits of sad men acting as though life is a game with infinite playtime,” said Briggs.

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