Trump meddling sparks GOP fears of new 'horror movie' midterm scenario

Ken Paxton's primary victory over Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is sending shockwaves through Republican donor circles, with party strategists warning the Texas Senate race could become a financial nightmare that bleeds resources from competitive battlegrounds across the country.

Nine GOP strategists and donors told Politico they fear the general election could force the party to spend up to $150 million defending a state Republicans never expected to truly contest — and one donor didn't mince words, comparing the final stretch of the Texas runoff, after President Donald Trump issued a last-minute Paxton endorsement, to a "horror movie."

"It means that $100 million will have to go to bail out the Texas seat instead of helping win seats in Maine, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and elsewhere," the anonymous donor told Politico. "[It] will go down as one of the worst self-inflicted political wounds of all-time."

Cornyn, a former chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, was expected to largely fund his own general election campaign through a deep donor network. Paxton, by contrast, had just $2.3 million in the bank heading into the final stretch of the primary — leaving Republicans scrambling to identify who will foot the bill.

Many expect Trump and his $350 million MAGA Inc. war chest to step in, though the organization declined to reveal its strategy.

“[Democratic state Rep. James]Talarico’s going to raise all sorts of cash,” a Senate GOP strategist told Politico. “There’s a very clear view that Trump took out one of the largest, most successful fundraisers in Senate history, and it’s a huge hole to fill. So the expectation is that Trump will fill that hole. He’s a prolific fundraiser and has a huge war chest.”

Making matters worse, Paxton faces a formidable opponent in Talarico, a prolific fundraiser who hauled in $600,000 within two hours of Paxton's victory — the strongest fundraising stretch of his entire campaign. Analysts project total spending in the race could surpass $550 million, dwarfing the $210 million spent in the 2024 Texas Senate race.

With Trump's approval ratings underwater, rising gas prices, and an unpopular war in Iran, Republicans can ill afford to play defense in Texas.

“Texas is a complex place. The question is, can you get a deep number of MAGA voters… and then get Cornyn establishment voters to convert to [Paxton]?” said another GOP donor. “That’s going to be difficult, and so you’re gonna have to spend a lot of money."

President Donald Trump is now facing pressure from his loyalists not to fold in his posture against Iran — and is growing frustrated over it, The Atlantic reported.

This comes as the president, faced with economic ruin and tumbling polls as the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed and fuel prices remain high, is pursuing a framework for a deal to end the war — one that is a long way off, but still looming large with some of his allies.

"Trump-supporting Iran hawks, already disappointed that the regime in Tehran is still intact, feared the president was rushing into a bad deal," stated the report. It reference Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) posting to X, “This combination of Iran being perceived as having the ability to terrorize the Strait in perpetuity” and the ability to “inflict massive damage to Gulf oil infrastructure is a major shift of the balance of power in the region and over time will be a nightmare for Israel,” and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, who posted, “the rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster.”

Trump has responded to this anger within his own party by hedging, but behind the scenes, it's aggravating him, the report said.

"A Trump aide told us the president was startled and annoyed by such pushback," said the report. "But the public criticism, and behind-the-scenes lobbying from Graham and others, was one reason Trump changed his tune. Rather than hyping a deal as imminent, he began to stress on social media that the agreement was not quite done, and that he’d accept only a clear win — though he didn’t specify what that would look like."

Graham, in particular, has long been one of the most consistent cheerleaders for military intervention in Iran, and went into the current war as an enthusiastic supporter.

President Donald Trump is taking a second crack at suing the Wall Street Journal over bombshell claims regarding Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump refiled a defamation suit against the newspaper Wednesday over its report about a crude birthday card it claimed Trump sent Epstein — a card Trump claimed didn't exist despite it later being released as part of the Epstein investigation.

An earlier case was tossed for not meeting standards required for defamation cases.

The card featured a salacious message wishing the billionaire child trafficker that every day be a "wonderful secret" and outlined by a crude doodle of an undressed woman.

Trump's first lawsuit against the Journal was rejected by Miami-based U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. Gayles found that the lawsuit failed to allege the Journal acted with actual malice, which is required in defamation suits brought by public figures under the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan case.

The updated suit was rewritten to address this, with Trump's lawyers alleging the paper “recklessly disregarded whether the Defamatory Statements were true.”

Trump has a long history of threatened and actual legal action against newspapers that publish damaging information on him, and sometimes threatens specific journalists like longtime New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

Donald Trump's controversial settlement with the Department of Justice to establish a $1.8 billion "weaponization" fund and shield himself from IRS audits is facing a major legal challenge, with 35 retired federal judges — appointed by presidents of both parties — demanding the court investigate whether the deal constitutes fraud.

According to the Washington Post, the bipartisan group of former judges filed a motion in federal court in Florida alleging that Trump and federal prosecutors deliberately misled the court by failing to disclose the settlement when voluntarily dismissing the underlying IRS lawsuit.

The retired judges' filing directly challenges the legitimacy of the agreement. "The purported 'settlement' that the parties never placed before this Court raises profound questions about the parties' candor toward the Court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice," it read.

The judges called for U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams to set aside the judgment and reopen the case for "judicial review of the extraordinary — and historically unprecedented — circumstances presented by this litigation and by the collusive 'settlement.'"

Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization filed the initial lawsuit against the IRS in January seeking as much as $10 billion in damages. The suit claimed damages for the theft of their tax filings by a former agency consultant who leaked them to news organizations, the Post is reporting.

Williams had previously expressed skepticism about the case itself, questioning whether the parties were "sufficiently adverse" given that Trump was simultaneously serving as president while suing the agencies he oversees.

The retired judges argued that Trump and the federal government are "improperly using the IRS lawsuit to allow a 'commission' controlled by the President to dole out $1.776 billion in taxpayer dollars without constitutional or congressional authority" and to obtain "unlawful private benefits to the President and his family" by permanently barring any audits of Trump's prior tax returns.

The filing represents the latest effort to block a settlement that would shield Trump from nearly $100 million in potential IRS liability while establishing a fund ostensibly designed to compensate others who claim they were targets of a "weaponized" justice system — but which critics say functions primarily as a slush fund for Trump allies and January 6 insurrectionists.