{"id":19412,"date":"2026-02-27T11:17:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bannon-blasts-trump-campaign-aides-in-texas-senate-showdown\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:17:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:17:29","slug":"bannon-blasts-trump-campaign-aides-in-texas-senate-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bannon-blasts-trump-campaign-aides-in-texas-senate-showdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Bannon blasts Trump campaign aides in Texas Senate showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DALLAS \u2014 When President Donald Trump pops up in Texas for an event at the Port of Corpus Christi on Friday, he\u2019s not expected to put his finger on the scale in the closely watched Republican Senate primary between incumbent John Cornyn, state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt \u2014 all of whom will be in attendance.<\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign team\u2019s involvement with Cornyn\u2019s reelect is opening a fresh wound for some pro-Paxton MAGA types.<\/p>\n

Tony Fabrizio, Trump\u2019s top pollster, is working for Cornyn\u2019s campaign, and Chris LaCivita, one of Trump\u2019s top campaign hands, works as a senior adviser for the pro-Cornyn super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority. Steve Bannon, the longtime MAGA torchbearer, has taken issue with Fabrizio and LaCivita\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy belief is the Trump team should have stayed out of this race, absolutely,\u201d Bannon told Blue Light News from a rented ranch in North Texas, where he\u2019s been broadcasting his \u201cWar Room\u201d show.<\/p>\n

Asked about Bannon\u2019s criticism of their involvement with Cornyn\u2019s reelection efforts, Fabrizio did not respond \u2014 but LaCivita texted Blue Light News a fiery reply: \u201cAssociating with Senator Cornyn is better than being a lacky [sic] for Epstein,\u201d he said, an apparent reference to Bannon\u2019s newly surfaced ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s release of documents in January revealed extensive exchanges that Epstein had with Bannon<\/u><\/a> as he mounted a political influence campaign across Europe. Bannon has said little publicly about his relationship with Epstein, but he did previously call for an independent investigation into the files. Bannon didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment on LaCivita\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

The intraparty conflict also foreshadows what\u2019s likely to be an increasing number of such battles for the future of the Republican Party. Bannon, who\u2019s all in for Paxton, is portraying the expected runoff between Paxton and Cornyn as nothing less than the battle for the soul of MAGA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Paxton situation is critical, because he has been the MAGA guy since Day One,\u201d Bannon told Playbook. Paxton, Bannon said, is more than just a candidate in a contested GOP primary. \u201cHe is a symbol of the heart of the grassroots MAGA movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

A White House official told Blue Light News \u201cthe president is neutral until he\u2019s not,\u201d and added that \u201cJohn Cornyn votes with the President.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaCivita declined to share the backstory of how he and Fabrizio ended up working with Cornyn.<\/p>\n

But the White House doesn\u2019t seem bothered. \u201cWe don\u2019t regulate the business\/political choices of private individuals \u2014 if they are a part of our world \u2014 in a race where the President is neutral,\u201d the White House official said.<\/p>\n

Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News’s <\/i>Playbook newsletter<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DALLAS \u2014 When President Donald Trump pops up in Texas for an event at the Port of Corpus Christi on Friday, he\u2019s not expected to put his finger on the scale in the closely watched Republican Senate primary between incumbent John Cornyn, state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt \u2014 all of whom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}