And we’re not at all impressed with a wannabe Mafia don – or his puppeteer – trying to order his Indiana minions about with this message via Heritage Action:
In case the above disappears…
President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state.
Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.
And, if the news had not reached my reader, Indiana GOP members, ordered to redistrict to “guarantee” more seats for the GOP in the House next year, thumbed their noses at the orders:
Indiana Republicans withstood immense pressure from President Donald Trump, ignoring anonymous threats on their lives as they defeated his plan to redraw the state’s congressional map and dealt him one of his most significant political setbacks since his return to the White House.
The GOP-controlled state Senate on Thursday voted down 31 to 19 the map that would have gerrymandered two more safe red seats, imperiling the party’s chances at holding control of Congress next November. [Politico]
How explicit and shorn of nuance was the pressure?
The failed vote is the culmination of a brass-knuckled, four-month pressure campaign from the White House on recalcitrant Indiana Republicans that included private meetings and public shaming from Trump, multiple visits to the Hoosier State from Vice President JD Vance, whip calls from Speaker Mike Johnson and veiled threats of withheld federal funds. The hesitant local lawmakers held out in spite of pipe bomb threats, unsolicited pizza deliveries to their personal addresses and swattings of their homes.
It’s the approach of the bully who wants to impress everyone with his ability to bend the recalcitrant. It’s a high-stakes approach, because if it fails, as it did, now the President has to follow up by replacing those responsible with more simple-minded minions – a horde of Earl Landgrebe clones, if you will.
At least some Republicans are coming to the realization that there are certain red lines not to be crossed. From the same article,
“The forces that define (the) vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have been gradually and now very blatantly infiltrat(ing) the political affairs in Indiana,” Indiana state Sen. Greg Goode, a Republican, said in his floor speech before voting against the measure. “Misinformation. Cruel social media posts over the top pressure from within the state house and outside, threats of primaries, threats of violence, acts of violence. Friends, we’re better than this.”
The cited State Senator Goode seems to realize the importance of the appearance of playing fair, and this is a contradiction of the Trumpian ethos. President Trump can’t stand that because it makes him look weak:
“Bray, whatever his name is,” Trump said, threatening to “certainly support anybody that wants to go against him,” and reasoning that he had “done a tremendous disservice.”
and Chris LaCivita, who ran Trump’s last Presidential campaign:
“You have a state full of MAGA Republicans run by Republican MAGA haters,” LaCivita said in a pre-vote interview, mentioning Bray, former Gov. Mitch Daniels and Vice President Mike Pence. “If you don’t defend a political movement from those that stand in the way — then it’s not a movement at all — a handful of politicians in Indiana will now know what standing in the way really means.”
Now, many independents are determined to cover their eyes when it comes to politics, but inflation, the disappearance of immigrants who work or are friends, not to mention SNAP benefits and VA services, all of these will certainly be enough clamor to get the attention of some independents, and seeing Trump trying to pretend to be, as I said, a Mafia don and bully, isn’t going to be attractive to them.
State Senator Goode may have done more good for the GOP than Trump in this instance, although I doubt Indiana was at much risk. But President Trump will continue to repel independents as the 2026 elections become to come into focus, and I think we can depend on the President continuing to act the fool.
