Here's a piece of advice for Republican politicians from someone who used to work for the man: don't count on his loyalty. Anthony Scaramucci, who served as White House Communications Director for all of eleven days back in 2017, has a message for the GOP. It's not a friendly one.
Scaramucci took to social media platform X this week to deliver a stark warning. "Trump does not care if you lose," he wrote. "He does not care about your career, your district, your donors, or your family." That's the kind of blunt assessment you get from someone who has been in the room.
According to Scaramucci, the former president's motivations are pretty straightforward. "Money, attention, self-aggrandizement. That's the complete list." He dismissed the idea that Trump is laying the groundwork to help Republicans win in 2028, calling it "a bunch of malarkey." Instead, Scaramucci suggests Trump's ultimate goal is simpler: to validate his own legacy. "The narcissistic nihilistic logic is this: you were nothing before I got here and when I leave, you'll be nothing again," he wrote.
It gets more personal. Scaramucci pointed to Trump family ambitions, noting that "Don Jr. has already said they want to be the richest family in the world before they leave the presidency." His final warning to Republican officeholders was brutally transactional: "There is no loyalty. There is only the transaction. And you're not the one getting paid."
While Scaramucci was delivering this political reality check, Trump himself was busy on the policy front. The former president signed an executive order aimed at tightening mail-in voting rules nationwide. The order directs federal agencies to help states compile lists of confirmed U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote.
Trump called the move "about voter integrity." It would require absentee ballots to be sent only to pre-approved voters using secure envelopes with tracking barcodes. Unsurprisingly, the announcement prompted immediate threats of legal challenges from Democrats and voting-rights groups.
In related political maneuvering, a Trump-linked super PAC called Turnout for America announced plans to invest over $50 million in voter turnout efforts ahead of the midterm elections. The group's leader, Chris Buskirk, revealed the investment at a donor retreat in Nashville attended by major Republican donors. The PAC is expected to coordinate closely with Trump's political team.
Earlier, Trump had urged House Republicans to pass something called the SAVE America Act, claiming it would guarantee GOP victories. He even suggested he might block other legislation until it passed. The bill, which did pass the House by a narrow 218-213 vote, would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and an ID to vote.
So here's the picture: on one side, you have a former insider warning that the party's standard-bearer views relationships as purely transactional. On the other, you have that same standard-bearer pushing voting changes and mobilizing resources for the next election. The question for Republican politicians seems to be whether they're partners in a political project or just another line item in someone else's ledger.
