GOP Insiders Turn on Trump After Election Disaster

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Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS Republican insiders have turned on Donald Trump over his crushing midterm election defeat, accusing him of “personally punching holes through our red wall”…

Republican insiders have turned on Donald Trump over his crushing midterm election defeat, accusing him of “personally punching holes through our red wall” by backing the wrong candidate.

The furious backlash has erupted in South Carolina, where the 80-year-old president backed Darline Graham, the younger sister of longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died in July.

Despite Trump’s support, the political newcomer was defeated by Democrat Annie Andrews, handing the party its first Senate victory in the state since 1998.

Nathan Leupp, 46, a former Greenville County Republican Party chairman, said Trump’s interference had helped cost Republicans a state that should have resisted the Democratic wave.

“I fully believe that South Carolina would have been the only red wall for that blue wave except for Lindsey Graham’s passing and President Trump personally punching holes through our red wall by selecting our nominee,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

Trey Walker, 59, a veteran Republican strategist and longtime chief of staff to Gov. Henry McMaster, told the Journal: “Quite frankly, I think we got the a**-kicking we needed.”

The outlet reports that anger against Trump is particularly great in Greenville County, a conservative stronghold that the president carried by 22 points in 2024. Andrews won the county last week, taking 49.8 percent of the vote against Graham’s 47.5 percent.

Trump personally intervened in the race following Lindsey Graham’s death, backing his sister despite concerns about her lack of political experience. As the Daily Beast has reported, his choice caused anger among Republicans even before Election Day.

Graham subsequently defeated Republican Rep. Ralph Norman in an August primary runoff, but went into the general election facing a much better-funded opponent.

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