Kari Lake has attached herself to Donald Trump like a stubborn barnacle on an old rusty ship. She even camped out at Mar-a-Lago this year to fundraise for her Arizona Senate campaign. But, according to The Washington Post, as much as Lake is sucking up to Trump, the ex-president is doing his darndest to pry her off.
"At one point last year, after grumbling for months that she was at his Mar-a-Lago Club too often, Trump gently suggested to Lake that she should leave the club and hit the campaign trail in Arizona," reports The Washington Post, adding that Trump worries "she might drag down his own poll numbers."
Lake must be quite the conundrum for Trump. On one hand, the professional MAGA candidate is one of Trump's biggest fans, praising His Majesty and promoting his Big Lie as if her life depended on it. And we all know how Trump can't resist a good ol' fashioned boot lickin'.
But he also can't stand losers — which Lake was in 2022 when she lost Arizona's gubernatorial race to Katie Hobbs — and as Trump lamented earlier this year about Lake, "She didn't win."
Sounds like someone's got a case of the ick.
From The Washington Post:
Former president Donald Trump has long had a soft spot for his acolyte Kari Lake, the expected GOP Senate nominee in Arizona, joking that Lake would pivot to his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen even if she was asked about the weather.
But since Lake jumped into the race, Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about her political prospects in a state he sees as key to his bid to return to the White House, and has shownannoyance with her frequent presence at his Florida resort, according to five people close to him, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments. …
Trump has also asked others if she can really win in Arizona and if she might drag down his own poll numbers as he seeks the presidency again in 2024, advisers said.
Trump's frustration with Lake has only increased over the past year, heightening the tension between the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and one of his most prominent followers — casting doubt on whether Republicans can present a sufficiently united front to win a key U.S. Senate contest and a presidential battleground state.
Trump has now all but ruled out Lake as a vice-presidential pick, remarking to multiple advisers that he would not choose her as vice president because she lost the 2022 gubernatorial race in Arizona, which he believed was winnable. "She didn't win," he told one political ally over dinner at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.
