James Blair and Chris LaCivita have Trump world seeing red

Por Will Steakin, Adam Wren, Dasha Burns and Megan Messerly — POLITICO – TOP Stories

Republicans 26 days out from a dire midterm reckoning are turning their cannons toward the two men tasked with the herculean job of maintaining control of Congress.

“This has opened the floodgates,” a person close to the White House told POLITICO of revelations that Chris LaCivita and James Blair traveled to the Balkans to advise a Russia-friendly regime’s reelection effort while Republicans’ midterm prospects dwindle back home. “The knives are now fully out for these two.”

President Donald Trump wasn’t aware of the trip and after finding out, called several advisers to solicit reactions before dictating Wednesday’s Truth Social post to White House aide Natalie Harp, according to two people familiar with the matter.

It was an extraordinary public distancing for two of the president’s top political lieutenants, who Trump called “outside consultants” who “do not work for me” just months after Trump hailed Blair as “one of the brightest political minds in the Country” and tasked him with helping Republicans win the midterms.

“Jaw dropping,” said James Carville, who consulted for former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 1994 after helping Bill Clinton win the White House. “Everything I did, I cleared with the White House. When I saw this I did one of those sitcom spit takes.”

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who’s considering a third White House run himself, said the episode is indicative of Republicans looking beyond the Trump era.

“If your top political advisors are not paying attention to the midterms and instead are paying attention to taking money off the table in a foreign country, that seems to indicate to me that they’ve moved on from Donald Trump as their top priority, and I think you’re going to see a lot of that,” Christie said.

Both Blair and LaCivita hail from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ political orbit, and received much credit for Trump’s 2024 win after joining Trump’s team when many viewed the president as politically toxic. “You know it’s bad that Susie couldn’t protect them,” one person close to the White House said.

“They are in full-on panic mode,” said another person close to the White House. “They have been calling everyone urging people to come out and defend them on this.”

Veteran GOP strategist Ward Baker, who worked with LaCivita and Blair while advising Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s campaign, defended the duo, arguing “there’s no one that cares more about the president than Chris LaCivita and James Blair, and they’ve shown it over and over again.”

“These people speaking on background, they have no courage,” Baker said, adding they “probably have gotten their butt kicked by these guys.”

But Trump’s frustration accumulated over months spent venting to allies in private over the leadership of his midterm strategy, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

“He has been livid for awhile over how things have been heading, and he hates nothing more than when people make money off him, especially when those people abandon him like this,” a person close to the president said, adding that any change is unlikely before Election Day, but that Trump “could cut them off forever” if things get worse.

A Republican consultant working for MAGA Inc. said the team’s work wasn’t impacted, given most of it is done over the phone. “We were summoned to a 9 a.m. Saturday conference call where we went over polling information for two hours. I didn’t know they were out of town till I read it in The New York Times.”

One GOP operative in a key midterm state agreed the travel had little impact … along with the rest of MAGA Inc.

“The MAGA Inc. ads aren’t going to save us anyways,” the operative said. “The ads are going to suck, and so if you don’t want Trump in the state, you also don’t want an ad up in the state about Trump.”

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Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories