White House 'wasn't ready for this' as Trump endorsement in key race falls flat: report

Donald Trump’s attempt to rid himself of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) for being a thorn in his side is not going according to plan, Politico is reporting.

Trump's endorsement has failed to deliver the knockout punch he expected after he endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA). "The Trump endorsement has not had a close-out move. Cassidy was ready for her," said GOP state Rep. Mike Bayham. "They defined her before she introduced herself."

Letlow is underwater on every metric. She's been massively outspent by Cassidy on the airwaves, has low name ID compared to her opponents, and faces State Treasurer John Fleming — another candidate with MAGA appeal and his own political network. Running her first statewide campaign under a compressed timeline, she's unable to capitalize on Trump's endorsement or rally the base behind her.

Mark Harris, a Cassidy aide, highlighted the strategic failure: "We're in the middle of a dogfight. Everyone's expectation is that she would shoot to a large lead and that we'd all be running from behind. But frankly I think they just weren't ready for this race."

Letlow's campaign strategy has been catastrophically flawed. Her ads have almost exclusively focused on her Trump endorsement rather than attacking Cassidy or defining herself to voters. Meanwhile, Cassidy has gone hard after her on the airwaves.

Letlow's other major vulnerability: geography. She hails from a rural district in north Louisiana far from the population centers of New Orleans and Baton Rouge — a region culturally aligned with the Deep South and vastly different from the Catholic, Cajun, and Creole influence dominating southern Louisiana.

"People haven't met her. She's almost invisible as a candidate," said East Baton Rouge Parish Chair Woody Jenkins. "When you're just meeting someone new in politics, and you hear all these bad things, you might have a first impression, but you tend to start having second thoughts. And he's just relentless in it."

The race has become a critical test of Trump's power. His approval ratings are at all-time lows, and his ability to remove Republicans who crossed him — like Cassidy's 2021 impeachment conviction vote — is now in serious question.

MAGA Inc. has remained mysteriously silent about whether it will spend money on Letlow for the primary or runoff, suggesting internal doubts about her viability.