Two individuals who have spoken to Trump say the president has expressed suspicion that members of his own party believe he will be defeated by Joe Biden. That sense of paranoia has been fed by the president’s aides and confidants, who have flagged recent news coverage for him of Republican politicians either openly criticizing his conduct or trying to distance themselves from a possible electoral bloodbath…
According to one of the sources with direct knowledge, the president is already contemplating retribution.
“[The president] said something to the effect of: if you’re backing away from him now, don’t bother coming back for a favor when he wins,” the other source said. “He made a comment about how there are some people out there who you can only count on when things are going your way.”…
The knives are out, and not just for perceived turncoats. Within the broad universe of GOP operatives working to re-elect the president, the blame game has already begun for the dire state of the campaign. One senior Republican official who has consulted with the campaign said that while staff were still confident the president could win, they were also increasingly alarmed by what the official described as the “gross incompetence with how things were being spent.”
