Alaska Gov Hops On Board Trump Train, Just Days Before Big Georgia Mugshot Photo Session
Just perfect timing.
Alaska is far away. It’s 2000 miles from Washington state but just 55 miles from Russia. So maybe Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has easier access to Russian state media than he does breaking US political news. This might explain why he’s just endorsed Donald Trump for president … in the same week that Trump was “proudly arrested” and given the deluxe mugshot treatment in Georgia. This is not Trump’s first indictment rodeo, either. He’s charged with 91 felonies across four different jurisdictions.
We kid, of course. Dunleavy is probably well aware of Trump’s legal challenges. He just doesn’t care. It’s not in any way a deal breaker. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have also endorsed Trump, but they did so before he had more felony charges than Bernie Madoff and John Gotti combined.
Dunleavy’s had his own recent scandals, as well. Jeremy Cubas, his adviser on “pro-family” policies, resigned this May after podcast footage emerged of Cubas insisting that Hitler “wasn’t just a lunatic who wanted to kill Jews” (yes, he was in fact) but rather “recognized the virtues of living homogeneously” (through ethnic genocide). He said some other awful things but praising Hitler is like running a red light during your driving test. There’s no need to continue.
With Dunleavy’s backing, Trump has earned the support of three of the five Republican governors who have endorsed in the race. Trump has also received the support of over 80 members of Congress, more than 16 times the amount of his nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
This is probably why Jonathan V. Last mocks the Republican elites, particularly Chris Sununu, who confront Trumpism with magical thinking: He won’t win the nomination because he can’t win. God forbid they actually stand up to him and refuse to support him even when it’s a bilateral choice between Biden and Trump.
Trump endorsed Dunleavy in 2018 during his first race for governor. He did so again in 2019 when Dunleavy was threatened with a recall after he’d “launched a dramatic assault on the state’s public sector.” That just seems like standard operating procedure for a Republican, but apparently Dunleavy pushed it too far even for a red (purple-ish?) state.
The New Yorker reported that Dunleavy’s budget proposal “reduced funding by more than forty per cent for the University of Alaska system and by three hundred million dollars for the state’s Department of Education. Safety-net cuts included a ninety-per-cent reduction for homeless services, a decrease for Medicaid of more than a third, and the elimination of programs such as adult Medicaid dental benefits, cash assistance to the elderly poor, and public assistance to Alaskans who are blind or have disabilities.”
His budget was so extreme that some Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it. Dunleavy responded by using state funds to pay for Facebook ads attacking the Republicans. Dunleavy survived the recall attempt and easily won re-election in 2022, again with Trump’s endorsement but it came with a catch this time. He said his “Complete and Total Endorsement” of Dunleavy was “subject to his non-endorsement of Senator Lisa Murkowski who has been very bad for Alaska, including losing ANWAR, perhaps the most important drilling site in the world, and much else.”
That “much else” was of course Murkowski’s Senate vote for Trump’s second annual impeachment.
“In other words, if Mike endorses her, which is his prerogative, my endorsement of him is null and void, and of no further force or effect.” Trump is like the master of demonic contracts. It’s as if he gave Dunleavy three days to get a prince to fall in love with him.
Dunleavy accepted these twisted terms and surrendered his voice to the MAGA witch. Trump’s Save America PAC shared his sniveling response, presumably signed in blood: “Please tell the President thank you for the endorsement … With regard to the other issue, please tell the President he has nothing to worry about.”
Pathetic, yet still somehow less embarrassing than Ron DeSantis’s endorsement list. So far, only Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has backed old Puddin’ Fingers’ presidential run. Maybe he should try getting indicted or approximating a personality.
[Politico]
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What I admire about Alaskan Republicans is their ability to bank their oil divided check every year and continue to attack socialism and loudly proclaim their independent spirit.
Kevin Kruse succinctly sums things up:
What's funny is that Vivek is going to campaign with furious Debate Bro energy for six nonstop months and then Trump will casually refer to him as "Rama-smarmy, or whatever" and he'll immediately turn to dust.