Donald Trump, the man who built his entire political brand on winning, has found a creative new strategy for staying undefeated: endorse everyone. Three days after his handpicked candidate in Georgia's Republican gubernatorial runoff got beaten, Trump turned to South Carolina and backed both candidates in the same race, simultaneously, in a single Truth Social post.
The Post That Launched a Thousand 'LMAOs'
Here is what Trump actually wrote, according to Fox News: "I can't hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson! With either one you can't go wrong."
That's it. That's the whole thing. The most powerful endorsement machine in Republican politics just shrugged and said, essentially, whoever wins, I called it. Nancy Mace, who didn't make the runoff herself, saw the post and responded on social media with "LMAO." Which, honestly, is the correct response.
This is not the first time Trump has tried the double-endorsement trick. In the 2022 Missouri Senate primary, he endorsed "ERIC" when both major candidates happened to be named Eric. Both men claimed the endorsement as their own. Eric Schmitt won and everyone pretended it was a sign of Trump's strategic genius. This time, nobody is pretending.
What Actually Happened in Georgia
The South Carolina hedge didn't come out of nowhere. It came directly out of Georgia, where Trump's chosen candidate in the Republican gubernatorial runoff lost just three days before Trump posted his both-guys-are-great message about South Carolina.
Fox News reports that Trump's endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries had already been snapped a few weeks earlier in Iowa, where his last-minute backing of three-term Rep. Randy Feenstra wasn't enough to beat Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer who had the backing of RFK Jr.'s MAHA movement and Turning Point USA.
Two losses in quick succession. Two endorsements that didn't move the needle enough. So when South Carolina came around, the calculation apparently shifted from "pick a winner" to "make sure I'm on the winning side no matter what."
The Candidates Are Playing Along Anyway
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who had Trump's backing before Wilson did, is not letting go of that fact. She told Fox News Digital on the eve of the runoff, "The president had a lot of confidence in me when it was a crowded field, and I won it for him on June 9. I'm going to win it for him again on June 23." She also made sure to note her loyalty credentials: traveling for Trump, stumping for Trump, fundraising for Trump.
Attorney General Alan Wilson, campaigning alongside Ted Cruz, took Trump's 11th-hour addition of his name to the endorsement list and treated it like a ribbon of honor. "I've been fighting and defending his agenda for the better part of a decade," Wilson told Fox News Digital, "and to have the president reflect that understanding in his endorsement a few days ago means so much to me."
Think about that for a second. The president just endorsed your opponent and you in the same breath, using language that roughly translates to "I don't want to pick," and you're out here saying it means so much to you. This is what Republican politics looks like in 2026.
Cruz, Mace, and the Loyalty Olympics
Ted Cruz flew into South Carolina to campaign for Wilson, which means Cruz was technically backing a candidate before Trump got around to it. When Fox News asked him about Trump's dual endorsement, Cruz said he was "very glad to see the president endorsing Alan Wilson" and explained his personal philosophy as supporting "the strongest conservative who can win."
Mace and Rep. Ralph Norman, who both failed to advance past the primary, threw their support behind Wilson. Mace's "LMAO" post suggests she finds the whole situation as ridiculous as it looks from the outside. Given that she was just in a bruising primary herself and watched the guy who beat her get a Trump endorsement that also covers his opponent, you can understand the mood.
Evette, for her part, secured the backing of outgoing Gov. Henry McMaster, a longtime Trump ally. So both candidates are wrapped in the flag of MAGA loyalty. Both are claiming the president. The president, for his part, is claiming both of them.
The Grip That Isn't What It Used to Be
Fox News has been framing this South Carolina runoff as a test of Trump's endorsement power, and before the Iowa and Georgia losses, that framing made sense. Trump had spent the spring knocking off incumbents in Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Texas in races that got significant national attention. His preferred candidates were winning, and Republicans were drawing the obvious lesson: cross Trump, lose your job.
But Iowa and Georgia complicated the story. The MAHA coalition beating a Trump pick in Iowa showed that there are now competing power centers inside the MAGA universe itself. RFK Jr.'s political wing and Turning Point USA backed a different candidate and won. That's not nothing.
Endorsing both candidates in South Carolina doesn't restore the mystique. It papers over a crack. The endorsement was supposed to be a weapon; now it's being used as a life jacket.
The Dingo Take
Let's be honest about what happened here. Donald Trump built his political identity on the idea that he picks winners. Backing losers is for other people, for weak people, for the kind of loser politicians he ran against in 2015. Winning is the whole brand. So when the wins started getting less reliable, the solution was obvious: just endorse everybody and collect the W on the back end. It's the political equivalent of betting on both red and black at the roulette table and then telling everyone you've never lost a spin.
The more revealing thing is how both candidates responded. Neither one laughed it off. Neither one said, look, the president just endorsed my opponent too, so maybe we should stop treating this like a papal blessing and start talking about actual policy. Instead they both sprinted to the microphone to explain why they were the real Trump guy, the truest Trump ally, the one whose win would really count as a Trump win. The scramble itself tells you everything about what the Republican Party has become: a loyalty competition with a judge who just told both contestants they tied for first.
Somewhere, Nancy Mace is still typing "LMAO" and she is not wrong.
