Donald Trump, a man who once staked his entire political identity on being a winner, has decided that the safest way to stay a winner is to endorse everyone. On Friday, Trump took to Truth Social to announce he was backing both candidates in Tuesday's South Carolina Republican gubernatorial runoff, because, in his words, he "can't hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other." That's not an endorsement. That's a hostage negotiation with yourself.
Both Candidates. One Man. Zero Spine.
Here is what happened. Trump already endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in late May, about a week and a half before the primary. Evette finished first in a crowded field that included Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, plus a multimillionaire businessman named Rom Reddy. Attorney General Alan Wilson came in second. Nobody hit a majority, so Evette and Wilson went to a runoff.
Then Wilson picked up endorsements from Mace, Norman, and Ted Cruz. He started looking competitive. And Trump, apparently unwilling to be associated with a loss, quietly decided to also endorse Wilson on Friday, two business days before voters head to the polls. According to Fox News, the double-endorsement was meant to hedge his bets.
Hedging your bets. The president of the United States, the self-proclaimed ultimate dealmaker, is hedging his bets in a state where Republicans have won every single gubernatorial election for 28 years. The stakes here are so low they're underground, and he still couldn't pick a lane.
This Is Not Actually New, Which Is the Depressing Part
Fox News points out that Trump has already done this exact thing in Arizona, where he is simultaneously backing both Gina Swoboda and Jay Feely in next month's Republican primary for the state's 1st Congressional District. Two candidates. One Trump endorsement each. The math doesn't work, but here we are.
The most famous version of this was 2022 Missouri, where Trump endorsed "ERIC" in the GOP Senate primary and let both Eric Schmitt and Eric Greitens claim it. Schmitt won the nomination and eventually the seat. Trump declared victory. The man has turned strategic ambiguity into a lifestyle brand.
What was once a scandal is now just a pattern. The most powerful endorsement in Republican politics has quietly become a participation trophy that the president hands out when he's nervous about being on the wrong side of a result.
The Race Itself Is Actually a Real Fight
To be fair to the voters of South Carolina, the Evette-Wilson runoff has been genuinely competitive and genuinely nasty. In Tuesday's final debate, according to Fox News, both candidates accused each other of lying and misrepresenting their records, which in modern Republican politics basically qualifies as a policy debate.
Wilson has leaned hard on his resume as a combat veteran, prosecutor, and the state's longest-serving attorney general. His argument is that Evette's role as lieutenant governor has been largely ceremonial, which is a burn that lands because it's mostly true. Evette has hit back by calling Wilson a career politician and positioning herself as a Trump-aligned businesswoman outsider, which is a choice framing for someone whose main credential is a job she got by being elected.
McMaster, the term-limited incumbent governor, is backing Evette. Cruz is backing Wilson. The GOP establishment is split. Somebody is going to lose. And whoever loses will not be Donald Trump, because Donald Trump has endorsed both of them.
The Streak, the Stumble, and the Spin
The context here matters. Trump's endorsement machine has been genuinely impressive this cycle. Fox News reports that his backed candidates ousted incumbents he targeted in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Texas, all within the past two months. That is real political muscle, and nobody should pretend otherwise.
But three weeks ago, Trump endorsed Rep. Randy Feenstra in Iowa's Republican gubernatorial primary to succeed retiring Gov. Kim Reynolds, and Feenstra lost. Narrowly, but still. He lost to Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer backed by the political arms of the MAHA movement and Turning Point USA, two organizations that are nominally part of Trump's coalition but apparently didn't get the memo.
So Trump is coming into South Carolina with one recent L on the books and a runoff that could go either way. The double endorsement starts making a lot more sense when you see it as loss prevention rather than political strategy. This is a man protecting his average, not throwing a fastball.
What Happens After Tuesday
Whoever wins the runoff is almost certain to become South Carolina's next governor. Democrats have not won a gubernatorial race in the state since 1998. The Democratic nominee, state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, will have a hard road regardless of which Republican he faces in November.
So the stakes of Tuesday's runoff are basically: which Republican gets to be governor? That's it. That's the whole story. And yet Trump still couldn't just pick one and stick with it.
The winner will, without question, accept Trump's endorsement as meaningful and pivotal. The loser will console themselves with the knowledge that Trump also endorsed them. And Trump will claim credit for the result either way, which, again, is the whole point.
The Dingo Take
There is a version of this story where you feel sorry for Pamela Evette and Alan Wilson, two people who spent months grinding through a brutal primary only to watch the most powerful figure in their party shrug and say "sure, both of you." An endorsement is supposed to mean something. It's supposed to be a bet. When you endorse everyone in the race, you haven't endorsed anyone. You've just issued a press release about yourself.
But here's the thing that should actually concern people. Trump's endorsement streak is real. His grip on the Republican Party is real. When he picks someone and commits, candidates win and incumbents fall. The fact that he is visibly, publicly unwilling to do that in a race this easy tells you something about what's actually going on inside that operation. When you're hedging in South Carolina, you are not operating from a position of strength. You are operating from a position of someone who has started reading his own press clippings too carefully and cannot afford a loss.
The winner of Tuesday's runoff will spend the next four years governing a state of five million people. They will make real decisions that affect real lives. And the way their party chose between them came down to a Truth Social post from a man who eventually decided to back both of them because he didn't want to feel bad on Wednesday morning. This is the Republican Party in 2026. Congratulations, South Carolina. Whoever you are.
