Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Washington Secrets. We’ll be at the Freedom Conservatism conference in D.C., so do say hello if you are there. Today, we look at one wrinkle in Team Trump’s dominance on Tuesday night, more turmoil at the British embassy, and how JD Vance did in his briefing room audition.
You will by now have read about Tuesday’s primary night results and Trump’s dominant grip on his party. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), long a thorn in the president’s side, is one of the most high-profile incumbents dumped out in a show of MAGA force.
Trump’s message remains the same: Move against me, and I will have my revenge.
But spare a thought for Chris LaCivita. The bruiser of a strategist has been much in demand after his key role in navigating Trump back to power in 2024.
So it was no surprise that he was scooped up by one side in one of the most expensive races in the cycle. He was tapped last year by Texans for a Conservative Majority, a super PAC supporting Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) reelection effort.
Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s top pollster, also backed Cornyn. Together, the pair are key players in the White House’s plans for the midterm elections.
And it was part of the senator’s attempt to move closer to Trumpworld, shedding what his critics suggest was a “country club Republican” image, and of course, land the coveted presidential endorsement.
All of that came to naught on Tuesday when Trump endorsed his rebellious rival Ken Paxton.
“John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency, itself, both of which were Landslide Victories,” said Trump in his social post, showing his memory stretches back a decade, to who was quick to support him in 2016.
Yet it all makes for a strange alliance.
Paxton’s campaign, you see, is studded with advisers and consultants from Axiom, strategist Jeff Roe’s firm. They were the team behind Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) effort to snatch the nomination from Trump in 2024. Their reward was to become persona non grata in Trumpworld.
Funny how these things work out. Now they are standard bearers for Trump’s revenge drive. And a reminder that Team Trump is whatever he decides it is on the day.
Who would want to be a British diplomat in Washington?
Last year, they suffered the embarrassing chaos of an ambassador embroiled in the Epstein affair, photographed years ago in a dressing gown, lounging with the pedophile.
With that behind them, they got to bask in the success of the king’s state visit three weeks ago.
Now they are back in the soup. Yesterday, they received a terse email telling them that their deputy ambassador, James Roscoe, was no longer “in his post.”
Reports from London suggest Roscoe is caught up in a leak inquiry after ministers’ confidential discussions ended up in a report about the British stance on Trump’s attacks on Iran.
The reporter apparently was Tim Shipman of The Spectator. The same Tim Shipman who stayed, rather unconventionally, at the British ambassador’s residence last year when it was empty.
Roscoe was much loved at the embassy, where he was credited with steering its staff through its worst crisis in recent memory.
But controversy is nothing new at the gorgeous Lutyens-designed residence. You may remember that Kim Darroch, ambassador from 2016 to 2019, was summoned hurriedly home after he made the mistake of offering an honest assessment of Trump’s weaknesses in cables that were then leaked.
Secrets’ lawyers are keen for me to point out that his return had nothing to do with a glamorous CNN reporter who kept getting national security scoops.
Vance invites comparisons with Rubio after briefing
When Vice President JD Vance took the podium in the White House briefing room on Tuesday, he wasn’t just standing in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave.
He was the second of two presidential hopefuls to audition in front of the assembled White House press corps.
The vice president was ready with his denial when a reporter hinted at the shadow campaign underway.
“I’m not a potential future candidate,” said Vance. “I’m a vice president, and I really like my job, and I’m going to try to do as good of a job as I can.”
No one believed him, which is as close as you can get to a formal qualification for addressing reporters in the briefing room.
Vance ran through his wide-ranging brief for 50 minutes. He updated reporters on his work chasing fraud, the new fund to compensate victims of a weaponized Justice Department, his thoughts on AI and its regulations, the latest in the Iran talks (such as they are), the United Kingdom’s politics, Kurdistan, electric cars from China and, this being a figure known for a pugilistic approach to the media, a seminar on how reporters should be asking their questions.
None of that matters as much as the straight comparison. Was he better or worse than Rubio?
YOU CAN READ THE WHOLE PIECE HERE
Lunchtime reading
Early war goal was to install hard-line former president as Iran’s leader: Remember Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with his calls to wipe Israel off the map, and build up Iran’s nuclear weapons program? He apparently was the choice of Israel and the Trump administration to take over Tehran, in a Venezuela-esque plan for the future of the country.
What you missed from last night’s primaries: Massie ousted, Georgia Democrats big turnout, and runoffs set. Everything you need to know.
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