McConnell during his tour of Kentucky during the July 4th recess kept to his months-long practice of not uttering Trump’s name, instead referring to events that occurred during the past four years as having happened during “the previous administration.”... But Trump keeps popping up in the national political conversation, even though he has been permanently banned by Twitter and suspended by Facebook, and major television networks have skipped carrying his rallies. Trump on Monday warned that Republican candidates who don’t publicly embrace him are setting themselves up for failure in the next election. “Four years ago, a man named Ed Gillespie ran for Governor of Virginia without ‘embracing’ MAGA, or the America First movement. He tried to skirt the issue by wanting my endorsement, yet walking on both sides of the fence. The Trump base is very large in Virginia, they understood his game, and they didn’t come out for Gillespie, nor did I do anything to help or hurt. He got creamed!,” Trump said in a statement through his PAC.