Former president, current Republican nominee, and convicted felon Donald Trump apparently went on a weird text tirade against the head of a PAC spending millions to support him.
Trump’s behavior in the past month has become increasingly erratic and strange, likely driven by having to face Vice President Kamala Harris in November rather than President Joe Biden, who made a surprise decision to decline re-election. Harris has been leading in polls since the announcement, and Trump has grown more bizarre in his messaging and actions.
In one of the strangest examples of intra-party in-fighting, he apparently had an aide send abusive texts to Republican mega-donor Miriam Adelson. The widow of the late Sands casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, Miriam restarted the Preserve America PAC, which has already spent $18 million on television ads for Trump in swing states. By all accounts, Adelson is doing her best to get Trump re-elected.
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of The New York Times report that Trump had his aide, Natalie “The Human Printer” Harp, send multiple harassing texts messages to Adelson. The messages included accusations that the PAC’s head, Dave Carney was a “RINO (Republican in Name Only)” and that her late husband would never have stood for hiring the man.
The accusations against Carney are frankly ridiculous. Carney has been a Texas Republican powerhouse, easily shepherding Abbott and former Governor Rick Perry into office. Sometimes referred to as Abbot’s attack dog, Carney has a ruthless political general that carves through his bosses’ opposition like a steak knife through moist brisket.
He is also a dedicated supporter of Trump to judge by his social media. There is simply no reason to think that Carney is anything other than a solid Republican operative in lockstep with the current head of his party.
So, why is Trump picking fights with one of his biggest financial supporters and her chosen lieutenant, a Republican operative of uncommon pedigree and unquestioned loyalty? The Times theorizes that Trump’s sudden decline in the polls has made him susceptible to manipulation.
Reportedly, the decision to attack Adelson and Carney came from another Trump mega-donor, former Marvel Entertainment head Ike Perlmutter. Haberman and Swan’s sources say that Perlmutter was attempting to switch her support from Preserve America PAC to one he ran instead. None of the parties would comment on the matter.
Trump’s flexibility when it comes to loyalty, ideology, and money has been a marked trait of his campaign. After being against cryptocurrency for years, Trump embraced crypto following a profitable meeting with the heads of several Bitcoin mining companies. He has performed similar flipping acts with TikTok after Jeff Yass spoke to him and eased off bashing Anheuser-Busch following a fundraiser headed by the beer company. Previously, they were under attack from conservatives because they had a trans spokeswoman for Bud Light.
Thus far, Trump’s vicarious text temper tantrum doesn’t appear to have cost him any support from Adelson or Carney. However, it further paints the Trump inner circle as disintegrating amid fights for position and money.
