President Trump is not sugarcoating what happened in Texas.
Hours after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott lost his bid for a fourth term, President Trump said Abbott’s defeat came after a six-month turn away from the MAGA formula that once made him politically untouchable.
Trump’s verdict was blunt: Abbott became a “RINO,” went back to his old political instincts, and paid for it at the ballot box.
Here is the president’s full statement:
That is an extraordinary break between two Republicans who spent years presenting a united front on the border, immigration enforcement, redistricting, and the future of Texas.
It is also a warning to every Republican trying to explain away Tuesday night. Trump’s argument is not that the party lost because it was too firmly MAGA.
He is saying Abbott drifted from the formula that built his strength in the first place.
The Texas Tribune reports that Trump posted the criticism shortly after Abbott conceded to Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa. Earlier that same day, Trump had again praised Abbott as “strong and highly respected” while urging Texans to reelect him.
The report says the relationship had already shown signs of strain. Trump backed Abbott’s border policies and reelection effort, but he criticized Texas in August after Abbott paused new data-center approvals until companies provided more information about their demands on the state’s power and water supplies.
Trump had endorsed Abbott’s fourth-term campaign last year and highlighted the governor’s support for the Republican redistricting push. Shortly after returning to office in 2025, Trump also praised Abbott’s border record and described him as a key partner for the new administration.
That history makes the president’s post-election language even more significant. This was not a routine complaint about a losing candidate; it was a public declaration that one of the country’s best-known Republican governors had abandoned the approach that once made him formidable.
Abbott did not fight the result. He called Hinojosa, congratulated her, and told supporters he would help with the transition.
His concession made the stunning outcome official:
The scale of the collapse is hard to overstate. Abbott entered the campaign as a three-term incumbent who had won every previous race for governor by double digits.
He had a massive political organization, national stature, and more money than his opponent could come close to matching.
The Texas Tribune reports that Abbott spent roughly $118 million on advertising, compared with about $26 million for Hinojosa. She nevertheless defeated him, becoming Texas’ first Latina governor and the first Democrat elected to the office since Ann Richards won in 1990.
Hinojosa built her campaign around public schools, opposition to Abbott’s voucher program, anger over data-center expansion, and a promise to curb the influence of corporations and billionaires in state government. She also benefited from running alongside Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico as the party made gains across Texas.
Fresh reporting on the strategy shows that the two candidates deliberately appealed to different regions and groups instead of treating their races as isolated campaigns:
Republicans now have to confront a result that would have sounded impossible only months ago: Texas voters rejected a Republican governor with a gigantic war chest, a national profile, and President Trump’s endorsement.
Trump has already offered his diagnosis. The question for the Texas GOP is whether it listens—or responds to a historic defeat by retreating even further into the same establishment habits he just blamed for the loss.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post President Trump Blames Greg Abbott’s Texas Collapse on His Six-Month ‘RINO’ Turn appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
