Secretly Caught on Tape: Trump’s Own Candidate Blames Trump for the Collapse in Texas

In a closed room, in front of donors and lobbyists, someone asked Ken Paxton what was dragging his campaign down. The Republican Senate candidate in Texas, who is also the state’s attorney general, answered openly: “It’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel.” With diesel above $6 a gallon, people were feeling the pressure. The recording was not meant for the public, and that is exactly why it contains what Trump’s party keeps quiet outside. Texas, the Republicans’ safest possession, is starting to slip, and the president’s own war is to blame. In an oil state, of all things, it is fuel hitting people hardest, an irony no one in the room could miss.

Transcript (A)

Question: So what are the issues that are dragging you down? I mean, what are people thinking? What do they think about the tariffs? Do they see a connection there? What is weighing on them?

Ken Paxton: It’s the war. The war, gas prices, diesel. When diesel is over $6 a gallon, I mean, we have a lot of trucks that run on diesel. We feel it.

Ken Paxton: I would say that is probably the biggest problem, and of course that drives food prices and everything else up. Everything is somehow connected to it. So that is by far our biggest problem. And I think that is why we are having a hard time right now.

Question: And how do you respond to that?

Ken Paxton: I put forward a plan that would help. That is basically the best I can do. My plan provides, for the first time, a tax break at birth and [inaudible].

Ken Paxton: You could raise the deduction for medical costs and insurance premiums to $25,000, for each [inaudible]. Also a $5,000 deduction for healthy living, so we can help people stay healthier, through things like gym memberships, nutrition programs, or even GLP-1 medications. That would help cover those costs.

Ken Paxton: Then I would double the child tax credit. That is also about giving more money to people who need support. And then [inaudible] allow the Trump council to [inaudible].

Ken Paxton: So that is basically the beginning of my broader proposal. I am just trying to figure out what ways I can help people. That is the only area where I can do something, by proposing legislation.

Ken Paxton: I can’t stop the war, right? I have no control over gas prices. So many factors in this federal race are outside my control. I do not make these decisions. And I do not know, you know, I do not know what is behind some of these decisions.

Transcript (B) Reader Version, Since Not Every Word Was Understandable … Context Version

Question: What is dragging your campaign down? What is weighing on people?

Ken Paxton: “It’s the war. It’s gas prices, it’s diesel.” With diesel prices above $6 a gallon, people were clearly feeling the strain.

Ken Paxton: He said that was probably the biggest problem. High fuel prices were also driving up food prices and other costs. He said it was “by far” the biggest problem for his campaign.

Question: How do you respond to that?

Ken Paxton: He said he had proposed a plan with tax breaks, higher deductions for medical costs and insurance premiums, a deduction for health-related expenses, as well as doubling the child tax credit.

Ken Paxton: “I can’t stop the war. I have no control over gas prices.” Many factors in this federal race were outside his control. “I do not make these decisions.”

Yet the power he says he lacks would be within reach. If Paxton made it to the Senate, he could vote for a War Powers resolution that would force Trump to end the war. The president started it in February without asking Congress. The man who blames the war for his collapse would, as a senator, stand exactly where he could stop it. Instead, he keeps lining up behind the man who started it. No end is in sight, because in this party, only one man decides over war and peace.

Yet the power he says he lacks would be within reach. If Paxton made it to the Senate, he could vote for a War Powers resolution that would force Trump to end the war. The president started it in February without asking Congress. The man who blames the war for his collapse would, as a senator, stand exactly where he could stop it. Instead, he keeps lining up behind the man who started it. No end is in sight, because in this party, only one man decides over war and peace.

This is already the third secret recording in just a few weeks. In one, Paxton complained that he had lost control over his own message, that Washington was dictating it to him. In another, he admitted that Trump’s big convention in Dallas had hurt the numbers. “When we did that, our numbers went down. Everybody’s went down. Right now, yeah, not good.” In front of the microphones, he stands loyal to the president, on tape he tells the truth.

Friend and opponent come to the same conclusion. Democratic strategist David Axelrod said that right after the war and the tariffs, crowning Paxton as the Senate candidate could turn out to be Trump’s worst political decision, the one he would regret most. John Huffman, the former Republican mayor of Southlake, wrote that Trump would not like hearing it, but Paxton’s assessment was right. The war and the prices were making this year difficult for Republicans. In an ordinary year, even a man as damaged as Paxton would have taken Texas. That things look different this time is not because of any opponent, it is because of the man to whom Paxton owes his nomination.

For Trump, the message is bitter. His own candidate in Texas is blaming him, on tape, and for the third time. In this party, the path upward only runs through loyalty to him, and that same loyalty is now dragging the loyalists down. Louder than any opponent’s campaign is the whisper coming out of the donor room.

This is what a party looks like after it handed everything to one man and now cannot stop his war while he drags it underwater. Washington sets the tone, Texas carries it and stays quiet. Loyalty by day, truth by night. In between stands diesel at $6 a gallon, and no amount of loyalty makes it cheaper. In November, Paxton faces Democrat James Talarico. Fortress Texas is cracking from within, and the crack bears the name of the man everyone here still follows.