CHRIS CRUCIAL: Donald Trump doesn't give a 💩 about the GOP

PLUS: Bob Menendez is running!

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1. What Trump really cares about

Last week, as you may have heard, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Larry Hogan, the popular former Republican governor of Maryland and the party’s Senate nominee in the fall, reacted this way to that news:

Which makes PERFECT political sense. Hogan is running in a state where Trump got 32% of the vote in 2020. And where Trump will likely get about that same percentage again this fall.

To win then — because, well, math — Hogan needs to convince a WHOLE lot of people in Maryland that he is not a Trump clone. And defending Trump after the conviction would not be a way to do that.

Again, it’s politics 101. Hogan’s statement doesn’t attack Trump directly but also makes clear that the governor doesn’t believe the trial was rigged or part of some Deep State initiative to target the former president.

When I initially saw Hogan’s statement, I thought to myself: “That’s very smart.”

The Trumpists did not agree with me.

Here’s Chris LaCivita, one of the two most influential strategists in the Trump campaign:

Which is, well, blunt!

Then there’s Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of the former president and the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Here’s what she said about Hogan on CNN on Sunday:

“I’ll tell you one thing, I don’t support what he just said there. I think it’s ridiculous. He doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly, anybody in America, if that’s the way you feel. That’s very upsetting to hear that.”

Ok, so what’s clear here is this:

1. Hogan CANNOT win in Maryland if he is too closely associated with Trump

2. The Trump people don’t care about that because the most/only thing that matters to them is utter fealty to the former president

Those two facts lead to this simple conclusion: The Trump team would rather Hogan lose a potentially winnable Senate seat than allow even the slightest bit of dissension within their ranks about Trump and his utter innocence.

Which is INSANE. Because Hogan actually has a chance to win in Maryland. I mean, I think he’s the underdog but there’s a chance!