All posts tagged "rick wilson"

Ex-Republican operative pinpoints GOP's most crushing weakness: 'Terminal blind spot'

Former GOP strategist Rick Wilson described a major shortcoming that Republicans have missed — and have been ignoring — since President Donald Trump entered the White House.

The co-founder of The Lincoln Project wrote in his Substack on Monday how Sen. Bill Cassidy's (R-LA) "original sin" against Trump in his vote to impeach the president during his first administration was what drove Trump's revenge campaign to unseat Cassidy in his race for re-election.

"Because here’s what Cassidy did next, and this is the part that elevates the story from tragedy to Trumpian farce," Wilson wrote. "Having committed the unforgivable, he spent the next several years frantically trying to be forgiven. He didn’t double down on the principle. He didn’t go full Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger and welcome political martyrdom in the name of principle."

"He negotiated. He tried to split the difference with a movement that does not do nuance, does not do partial credit, does not grade on a curve," Wilson wrote.

Despite Cassidy's best efforts, it did not work in his favor, Wilson explained. The former physician even voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead Health and Human Services as a way to signal loyalty to Trump, "apparently believing this act of submission would buy him a permission slip back into the tribe."

"It bought him nothing. It was always going to buy him nothing. That is the part Cassidy and the entire cowering remnant of the institutional GOP cannot, will not, are constitutionally incapable of internalizing," Wilson wrote.

"There is no appeasement price that satisfies Trump’s hunger," Wilson wrote. "The bill is never paid, because the debt isn’t financial; it’s a loyalty oath sworn in blood, and there are no installment plans. You cannot impeach the man and then confirm his cabinet and net out even. The ledger doesn’t work that way. The ledger only records the betrayal."

Republicans have missed this signal from Trump, he explained.

"This is the GOP’s terminal blind spot, and it’s worth naming precisely: they keep believing they can transact a deal with Trump, that somehow he won’t turn on them if they ever betray the slightest tendency to principle," Wilson wrote.

"They think there’s a deal in there somewhere, a position, a vote, a sufficiently groveling Fox hit that squares the account. There is not, and will never be," he added.

Trump 'dumped' too much 'poison' into critical US alliance to save it: ex-GOP strategist

An ex-Republican strategist warned that a critical United States military alliance has already been so damaged by President Donald Trump that it's too late to save it.

"NATO's on the clock," Rick Wilson said in the latest episode of his podcast. "It's got three, two years left, tops. Even when Trump dies, even when he's gone, the poison he dumped into the system is so profound, I don't know how you reverse it."

Trump's most recent moves include withdrawing troops from Germany and Poland with little heads up to the U.S. allies. Wilson played a video of Trump trashing NATO because he was able to "blast the hell out of Iran" without their help.

"We've had some very bad allies in NATO," Trump is shown saying. "We spend trillions of dollars on NATO, and when we need them, which we never do, we didn't need them here either.

In the video, Trump also called the European-U.S. super alliance a "paper tiger" and said "the last thing I needed was NATO stepping in our way" with Iran.

The way Wilson saw it, Trump went to "our allies in the Gulf, we said, 'Hey, we're going to go do this war for Bibi [Netanyahu] and for Donald Trump's ego." Trump also went to war with Iran so that Defense Secretary "Pete Hegseth can get a war boner," Wilson added.

"Donald Trump has poured so much poison into so many parts of the global economy and the global military alliances that once protected us," Wilson said. "All those countries now are reassessing how they view our relationship."

Dark lesson as Republican reality TV star floods voters with 'Gotham-grade dystopia'

A former Republican strategist admitted that a GOP mayoral candidate and former reality TV star might not win his election, but the "AI-generated Gotham-grade dystopia" he's created has "changed the game" for future political ads.

Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump organization The Lincoln Project, described in his Substack on Friday how Spencer Pratt's decision to specifically message around crime during his Los Angeles mayoral campaign is something Democrats should pay attention to.

"Pratt’s message, delivered with a comic, postmodern AI flourish, is…and I cannot believe I’m typing this about a Hills alum…quite frankly very well done. It’s not an endorsement; it’s an observation," Wilson wrote.

"For a man who has no business being in a close second place, Pratt is doing something politically that Democrats should learn from once they’re done pretending that campaigns will stay the same, forever," Wilson explained.

Pratt, who announced his candidacy for Los Angeles mayor in 2026 as a political newcomer, has sought to bring attention to homelessness and other city issues. His campaign has garnered significant media attention due to his celebrity status and reality television past, though he faced skepticism from political observers regarding his lack of prior political experience and specific policy proposals.

"What’s the message? Crime makes the city unlivable. Filth makes the city unlivable. Bureaucracy makes the city unlivable. Kids are unsafe. You are unsafe. Decline is a choice. The ads themselves are the campaign. There is no campaign apart from the ads," Wilson added.

Blundering Trump just gave China what it always wanted: ex-GOP strategist

Trump has already delivered China's ambitions with "self-inflicted" wounds, an ex-GOP strategist warned ahead of the president's visit with the country's leader, Xi Jinping.

"China's ambitions, whether they are military or economic, have been delivered up by Donald Trump," Rick Wilson said on a Tuesday episode of his podcast. Trump was set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from May 12-15 with business leaders like Elon Musk, and Wilson noted he's going in with "cataclysmically low poll ratings" and "tremendous political weakness" amid the war in Iran.

However, while "we've lost the war in Iran," Trump started delivering "self-inflicted" wounds that benefit China's ambitions well before that, Wilson said.

"Trump starts a trade war. Almost every nation in South America is on the wrong side of Trump's trade war," Wilson explained. "What happens in South America? They cut deals with China. They're selling their products to China."

Looking at Trump's government cutbacks, Wilson said that the DOGE decision to dismantle USAID is also helping China's global standing rise above that of the United States.

"If you had gone into any African country two years ago, where there's a famine, where there's sickness, where there's poverty, where there's disease, where there's misery, you would have seen USAID workers," Wilson said. "You know what you'd see now? China. Because Elon and DOGE cut USAID and killed the program. So now those bags of food don't say, 'A gift from the people of the United States.' Now those bags of food say 'A gift from the people of the People's Republic of China.'"

Wilson predicted that as people watch Trump's visit to China, they'll see him "with a sense of discomfort, with a sense of embarrassment," even though Trump will "bluster and yell and try to pretend that he's got the strong hand here. He does not. Xi Jinping has the strong hand."

Republicans walked into 'one of the stupidest traps I've ever seen': ex-GOP operative

The GOP is walking into an embarrassing trap by stumping for one of Trump's vanity projects, said an ex-GOP political operative on Friday.

"This is one of the stupidest political traps I've ever seen somebody walk themselves into," said former Republican political strategist Rick Wilson during an appearance on MS NOW. "I want Republicans to vote for the ballroom."

Wilson was talking about Trump's White House ballroom. Senate Republicans are asking that taxpayers fork over $1 billion to fund security features in the Trump ballroom and have tied the demand into a $70 billion reconciliation package to fund federal immigration enforcement.

"I want them to go out and cheerlead for the ballroom every day," Wilson said, as he would like to see the GOP continue to shoot itself in the foot. "The GOP, while they're nervous...They're still not going to publicly defy Trump."

Wilson explained that "the ads write themselves" as farmers in rural districts deal with "record farm bankruptcies and unbelievably high fuel costs." It would be easy to imagine "that farmer looking straight into the camera saying, 'you know, we're going to lose the farm, we're going bankrupt, but at least I get to pay for a ballroom with my taxes,'" Wilson said.

"The suburban mom at the grocery store or at the gas pump: 'At least I get to pay for a ballroom. Can't really afford to go to work, but I'm going to pay for the ballroom,'" Wilson said.

"If they cast this vote, it is going to get hung around their neck like a dead animal," Wilson predicted. "And it's going to stink all the way to election day."

Ex-Republican insider delivers grim prediction Trump will let Ghislaine Maxwell 'walk'

Ex-Republican operative Rick Wilson said Thursday that he anticipates President Donald Trump will extend a pardon to Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

In his Substack, the co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project wrote how Trump's pervasive use of pardons could soon lead to Maxwell's exit from prison.

"And the pardons. Dear God, the pardons," Wilson wrote. "What was once the solemn prerogative of a sovereign, the mercy of a republic, the final conscience of the state, is now a product on a shelf, with a price tag payable in cash, crypto, or the correct political humiliation."

Trump has issued more than 1,700 pardons since returning to office in 2025, including nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 rioters.

"Fraudsters walk. Tax cheats walk. Violent insurrectionists walk," Wilson added. "Campaign donors with federal indictments walk twice and get brunch. Pay the man, take the paper, leave through the back door of the West Wing, and don’t forget to tip the butler. Very soon now, Ghislaine Maxwell will walk. Mark it down."

Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking of a minor, has told lawmakers she will testify under oath — but only under the condition of clemency. The move has split House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members leading the probe into Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators over whether President Donald Trump should grant her that pardon. Maxwell was previously deposed by House lawmakers and invoked her Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer the committee's questions. Trump is the only one with the power to pardon her, something he has not yet ruled out.

Trump's handpicked loyalists fail at everything — even doing evil: ex-GOP operative

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson reacted on Wednesday to the most recent Trump cabinet exits, saying it was getting ugly.

In his Substack, the co-founder of anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, revealed the similarities among President Donald Trump's now-ousted insiders and why he has viewed them as failures. In the last several weeks, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer have all been dismissed — others, reportedly FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — may be on the chopping block next.

"Firing season is here," Wilson wrote.

"Here is the fundamental problem, and it is one Trump will never solve because it is downstream of who he is: he picks people for loyalty, and loyalty in his world is inversely correlated with competence," Wilson explained.

And that is problematic considering the nature of the cabinet positions.

"The kind of person who will say 'yes, sir' to anything is, almost by definition, not the kind of person who can actually do a cabinet-level job," Wilson wrote. "You cannot prosecute complex federal cases, run a 3-million-person military, manage a 22-agency national security apparatus, or direct the FBI on trolling, Truth Social posts, and a--kissing."

"And here’s the really incredible part: even the ones who have tried to do evil on Trump’s behalf aren’t even very good at that," Wilson added.

But these cabinet members knew what would eventually come, Wilson explained.

"In 2026, America is watching Trump fire people and seeing something very different," he added. "His approval is in the political Marianas Trench, it’s so far underwater. The midterms are seven months away. Republicans are whispering about a wipeout. And the man who built his brand on never showing weakness is now panic-firing the very people he told us, fourteen months ago, were the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in Washington."

"It’s not a show anymore. It’s a tell."

Ex-GOP insider reveals why Trump’s AI Jesus keeps him up at night: 'He wants your worship'

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson shared just why President Donald Trump's decision to share an image of himself posed as Jesus "raising someone who looks a lot like Jeffrey Epstein from the dead," troubles him.

The co-founder of The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organization, discussed in his Substack on Tuesday why Trump's latest move was not only unsettling, but analyzed just how "the entire scam" has played out among MAGA and Christian followers who supported Trump.

"Now, it’s been a minute since Divinity class, but I know my Bible well enough to know that what we’re looking at here is either the greatest act of accidental self-own in the history of organized religion, or, and bear with me here, a slow-roll confirmation of the one prophecy nobody in MAGA land bothered to read before slapping on the red hat," Wilson wrote.

"He might be the Antichrist," Wilson wrote. "And I mean that with exactly as much comedy and as much genuine theological dread as you think I do."

Trump's rise to power was propped up by a number of supporters, including the religious right.

"Trump has been sold to evangelicals (and a damn good percentage of Catholics) as America as a vessel of divine providence," Wilson explained. "The man with three wives, the hush money, the Epstein mess, the whores, the sexual abuse, the porn stars, the casinos, the fraud judgments, the scams and rip-offs, the gleeful cruelty, this is the man God chose."

MAGA was convinced Trump was essentially their guy, Wilson argued.

"That’s the pitch. With a straight face. From pulpits. Joel Osteen has several private jets and a house the size of Rhode Island because he and others like Franklin Graham sold you this guy. Think on that," Wilson wrote.

In a recent podcast appearance with Logan Paul, Osteen denied owning a private jet and complained that people "make stuff up" about his wealth.

But the meme that sparked public outrage this week has led to more revelations about who Trump really is — and what he really desires, according to Wilson.

"Here’s the thing about the Jesus meme that keeps me up at night, not the blasphemy of it (though, sure, that too), but the demand it represents. The man doesn’t just want your vote. He wants your worship. He wants to be the thing you kneel before. He has always wanted that," Wilson added.

Trump told impeachment now the 'least of your problems': 'Nothing will save you, Donald'

Former Republican operative Rick Wilson had a message for President Donald Trump about who would target him next.

The co-founder of The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organization, described in his Substack post on Wednesday how as Trump's approval rating plummets, gas prices surge, and the Iran war rages on, Trump is looking at no escape.

Instead, "Misery, humiliation, and shame await," Wilson argued.

"Nothing will save you now, Donald," Wilson wrote. "Not the war. Not the lies. Not today’s loyalists, tomorrow’s traitors. Not the terrified little men orbiting your shrinking political sun. Not the algorithms, not the oligarchs, not the endless stream of garbage Fox and Twitter propaganda pumped into the veins of a movement that’s finally, visibly, unmistakably breaking apart. You chose this."

Wilson called out Trump's biggest fear — impeachment. But even that shouldn't make him worry. There was another looming threat.

"You’re afraid of impeachment. Of course you are," Wilson wrote. "It’s the word that haunts you, the specter you can’t quite outrun.
But impeachment is the least of your problems. What you should fear, what should keep you pacing the halls of the Residence at three in the morning, is oversight. Relentless, grinding, methodical exposure."

The ex-GOP strategist suggested that more investigation could come from lawmakers. And as Republicans approach midterms and Democrats hope to take back the majority, Trump might have another problem on his hands.

"A Democratic House and Senate won’t just vote on articles of impeachment," Wilson wrote. "They’ll open the books. They’ll drag the secrets into the light. They’ll subpoena documents, bank records, and communications. They’ll put your allies, your bagmen, your enablers, and yes, your crapulous, scumbag low-tier crypto criminal family members, on the hot seat."

Trump's allies might also be called to testify before Congress.

"And it won’t just be you," Wilson wrote. "The tech-bro billionaire class that decided, in a fit of adolescent contrarianism and naked self-interest, to hitch their wagons to your movement? They’re next in line. Let’s see how Boy Elon does under the hot lights for 8 hours a day for two weeks."

Even Elon Musk, or others who have funded Trump, could have to face justice, Wilson explained.

"They’ve been very comfortable lavishing you with swag and praise, funding, amplifying, and cheering on the chaos, convinced that they were too rich, too smart, too insulated to ever face real consequences," Wilson added. "Congressional oversight is about to disabuse them of that notion. Subpoenas don’t care about your net worth. Hearings don’t care about your follower count. Under oath is a very different environment than a podcast or a tweet. They’re about to find out."

Ex-GOP operative flags Trump admin's subtle shift to appeal to MAGA base

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson on Monday identified how President Donald Trump has made a quiet change in his messaging approach amid the ongoing Iran war.

Wilson, the co-founder of anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, was speaking on a MS NOW panel with anchor Katy Tur and described how Trump has changed his talking points for his MAGA base. He also referenced Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's criticism of media coverage and how he was frustrated by the way the press has covered the military strikes and Trump administration.

"What you saw Pete Hegseth asking for, he wanted reporters in that room to be stenographers, not reporters," Wilson said.

"I think part of this, Katy, and that propaganda inside of the MAGA universe is often directed at their own base, and they switched very quickly from being antiwar to pro-war," Wilson explained.

Trump changed direction and has been messaging to his base that the war has been going according to his plan, Wilson argued.

"And I think part of this is that Trump feels the need to reinforce his case, that 'this is the perfect war,'" Wilson added. "'It's all great. There's no problems in the gulf. It's all going to be fine. That this is a short-term pain for long-term gain.' I think part of this is an internal base messaging operation because they like it when the administration attacks the legacy media, as they call it."

Tur added that the administration has used this tactic before with MAGA followers.

"It's always when they're on the attack, they can look like the victims," Tur said. "It plays well with the base. 'Look at them. They don't support us. They're always out to get us. They're reporting on the dead American service members. They shouldn't be reporting on that. They should be reporting on all of the victory.'"