BREAKING: Trump panics as his endorsed candidate loses to someone who wasn't even running
Plus: the president posted an AI photo of himself outranking Patton and MacArthur — and Ken Paxton got booed off his own message.
Good morning and welcome back to your morning edition of the daily Democratic Wins Media newsletter. The most valuable thing Donald Trump claims to own is his endorsement. He posts graphics on Truth Social bragging that it’s undefeated. As of last night in Michigan’s 8th District, it isn’t — his candidate got beaten by a retired GM engineer who had already quit the race and endorsed somebody else. That’s this morning’s throughline: the aura is doing a lot of work that the actual political operation can’t back up. Trump spent Tuesday photoshopping four stars onto his own shoulders, and his handpicked Texas Senate candidate spent it getting shouted down while trying to talk about the cost of living. None of it is holding.
This morning’s rundown:
The streak breaks in Michigan. Trump gave Amir Hassan a “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Hassan finished 17 points behind a man who had suspended his own campaign three weeks earlier.
Stolen valor by AI. The president posted a generated image of himself as a four-star general outranking Patton and MacArthur, wearing a medal resembling the Medal of Honor. He has never served a day.
Paxton gets drowned out. Trump’s Texas Senate pick was booed mid-sentence at his own event — as a third straight poll shows him trailing James Talarico.
Before the news, a word about why this newsletter exists. The Ellison family now controls CBS News and CNN with Bari Weiss in charge. Bezos owns the Washington Post. Murdoch runs Fox and Roku. The billionaires are buying every outlet that could hold them accountable. Democratic Wins Media is the alternative: we’re fully reader-funded, editorially independent, and will never be purchased. If you have been reading on a free subscription, this morning is the moment to upgrade to a paying membership. Subscribe or upgrade right now.
TRUMP’S ENDORSEMENT STREAK JUST DIED IN MICHIGAN
Amir Hassan spent more than a year running for Congress and got what most Republican candidates would trade a limb for: a “Complete and Total Endorsement” from Donald Trump on Truth Social in July. On Tuesday he finished second with 33.2 percent — beaten by Thomas J. Smith, a retired General Motors engineer who took 50.4 percent, according to Associated Press results.
Smith wasn’t running. He suspended his campaign on July 17 and threw his support to a different rival, anti-abortion activist Al Lemmo, who finished third at 16.4 percent. Smith’s name simply stayed on the ballot. He said he was humbled and honored that Republicans had chosen him.
Hassan is the first Trump-endorsed candidate to actually lose a congressional primary at the ballot box this cycle. Two earlier exceptions — Tony Gonzales in Texas and Jackson Lahmeyer in Oklahoma — quit amid scandal before voters weighed in, and Trump moved his endorsement both times. Trump’s own supporters had flooded the Hassan endorsement post with religious attacks, insisting he was Muslim; his campaign site says he’s Christian.
Why it matters: Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet now faces a nominee his own party didn’t want and who wasn’t campaigning. She drew no primary opponent, has banked roughly $4.25 million, and won this district by nearly seven points in 2024 — in a seat Trump carried by two. That gap between Trump’s ballot strength and his party’s is the entire Democratic path to the House.
By the numbers: $4.25 million to $727,000. McDonald Rivet’s cash on hand versus what Hassan raised for the whole primary.
THE PRESIDENT GAVE HIMSELF A MEDAL HE NEVER EARNED
Trump posted an AI-generated image to Truth Social on Tuesday showing himself in a general’s uniform on a battlefield, flanked by George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur. In the image Trump wears four stars and dozens of service ribbons, along with a decoration resembling the Medal of Honor. Patton and MacArthur are shown wearing two stars each.
The real ranks run the other way. MacArthur was one of only five Americans ever to reach five-star general. Patton was a four-star. Trump has never served in the armed forces and has never held a military rank. During Vietnam he received five draft deferments — four for education, one for bone spurs in his heels. He has publicly mused more than once about awarding himself the Medal of Honor, which is given for conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty in combat.
Veterans and critics were quick to call it stolen valor. The image is not stolen valor in the legal sense — the statute covers fraudulent claims made for material gain — but the objection stands on its own terms.
Why it matters: This is a president who has cut veterans’ services and staffing while manufacturing decorations for himself in software. Service is something you do or you don’t. He didn’t, and no amount of AI slop closes that gap.
By the numbers: 5. Draft deferments Trump received during the Vietnam War.
KEN PAXTON COULDN’T GET THROUGH HIS OWN STUMP SPEECH
Ken Paxton was pitching his “Texas Promise Plan” — a $25,000 medical-expense deduction, a $50,000 first-time homebuyer deduction — when the booing started and he had to stop talking. He waited it out with a joke: he didn’t think she was going to like the plan. His supporters eventually shouted the protesters down and he finished.
The interruption landed the same day as more bad numbers. A Texas Southern University survey from the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center — 1,200 likely voters, fielded July 27–30, margin of error ±2.8 points — put Democrat James Talarico ahead 47 to 45, with Libertarian Ted Brown at 2 percent and 6 percent undecided. That’s inside the margin of error, but it’s the third consecutive poll showing Talarico in front, after a Fox News poll (Talarico 51-48) and one from Texas Public Opinion Research, a Democratic-strategist-run firm, at 45-40.
Paxton’s numbers underneath are worse than the horse race: 39 percent favorable to 57 percent unfavorable. Talarico led among independents 63 to 23 in the TSU poll. CNN’s Harry Enten noted this week that Paxton is far underwater with independents, unlike Ted Cruz at the same point in 2018.
Why it matters: Texas Democrats haven’t won statewide in more than three decades, and one two-point poll doesn’t change that. What’s changed is who Republicans nominated. Trump pushed out a four-term senator for a scandal-plagued attorney general, and now a Democrat is running even in a state Trump carried by 14.
By the numbers: 39/57. Paxton’s favorable-to-unfavorable split among likely Texas voters.
The Bottom Line
Trump’s endorsement lost to a man who wasn’t running, his Senate pick can’t finish a sentence in front of a friendly crowd, and the president spent his Tuesday awarding himself medals in Photoshop — the machine everyone was told was invincible is just a guy posting.
HELP US FIGHT THE BILLIONAIRE TAKEOVER OF AMERICAN MEDIA
American newsrooms are being bought, consolidated, and quietly steered by people with a stake in what you don’t find out. Democratic Wins Media isn’t one of them — no billionaire owner, no corporate sponsor, nobody upstairs deciding which stories are worth your morning. This morning we told you about a Trump endorsement that lost to a candidate who’d already quit, a president manufacturing military honors he never earned, and a Texas Senate nominee getting shouted down at his own event. Those are stories a billionaire-owned newsroom runs for a day and drops. We stay on them because we answer to you and nobody else. If this is worth something to you, become a paid subscriber today →
The fact that even 30% of the voting public still supports the Felon-in-Chief is beyond me. Likewise, the Senate race being only a 2 point advantage for Talarico over the corrupt Paxton just shows how blind way too many people are in evaluating each candidate as opposed to just caring what capital letter comes after their name.
Love this newsletter, but PLEASE stop saying that the Ellisons own CNN. THEY DON'T. Not yet and won't even be a possibility for at least a year, after litigations end.