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Trump’s endorsement power faces new test in Louisiana Republican Senate showdown
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President Donald Trump’s immense clout over the GOP and the power of his endorsements in Republican nomination races faces its latest test Saturday, as Louisiana holds primary runoff elections for the U.S. Senate.
Six weeks after denying Trump-targeted GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy a third six-year term in the Senate, Republican voters in the solidly red Gulf Coast state will choose between Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming for the now open seat.
A Letlow victory in the GOP runoff would be another victory for Trump as he works to fill the halls of Congress with loyal lawmakers for his final two years in the White House. But a win by Fleming would be the third high-profile endorsement setback for Trump in this spring’s Republican primaries.
Five years after he voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, Cassidy was sent packing.
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Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana fist bumps a supporter during a campaign stop at a gun retailer and firing range in Baton Rouge on May 15, 2026, the eve of the state’s Senate primary. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
Letlow, who was backed by Trump even before she entered the race in January, grabbed 45% of the vote in the primary, with Fleming at roughly 28% and Cassidy at just under 25%. Since no candidate cracked 50% of the vote, Letlow and Fleming advanced to the runoff for the Republican nomination and Cassidy became the first elected Republican senator to lose renomination since Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana in 2012.
Trump, celebrating Cassidy’s defeat, said on social media that «it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!»
Cassidy, in a speech to supporters after conceding, took a jab at Trump, saying, «When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to. But you don’t pout, you don’t whine. You don’t claim the election was stolen… You don’t manufacture some excuse.»
President Donald Trump stands with Rep. Julia Letlow during the Congressional Ball at the White House Grand Foyer in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 11, 2025. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Letlow, who is also backed by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a top Trump ally, won her congressional seat in 2021, after her husband, Luke Letlow, died five days before being sworn into the U.S. House after his 2020 election victory for the seat she now holds. She has highlighted her support from Trump throughout her Senate campaign.
The president headlined a tele-rally for Letlow in the closing days ahead of the runoff, and in an election eve social media post called her a «TOTAL WINNER!»
Fleming, who spent eight years in Congress before serving as a White House deputy chief of staff during Trump’s first term, has argued that he’s the most conservative candidate in the GOP Senate primary. During his tenure in Congress, he was a founding member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Fleming, in a Fox News Digital interview last month, touted that voters saw him as «clearly MAGA.» And he highlighted that he «served as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for 10 months in the White House. I served in his entire first administration at various capacities. I was one of the first congressmen that endorsed him in 2016.»
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The GOP nominee will be considered the clear frontrunner in the midterm election against either farmer Jamie Davis or Navy veteran Gary Crockett, who are facing off in the Democratic Senate runoff.
The brute force of the president’s endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past two months, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Kentucky and Texas, as well as the Louisiana primary.
But Trump’s endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped a few weeks ago when his last-minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn’t enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer and former political strategist who was backed by the political wings of MAHA — the acronym for the Make America Healthy Again movement aligned with Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Turning Point USA, the powerful conservative organization co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Zach Lahn raises his fist in celebration after defeating his primary opponent in Iowa’s GOP gubernatorial race on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (Zach Lahn for Governor via Facebook)
The president rebounded three weeks ago in South Carolina, as Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette finished first in the GOP gubernatorial primary and longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham won a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.
Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran. Lynch was backed by some MAGA leaders who have been critical of the president.
Two weeks ago, Trump-backed candidates won two of the three top races in Georgia and Alabama, with the one setback coming against a billionaire businessman who shelled out over $100 million of his own money to boost his campaign.
Rep. Barry Moore, a House Freedom Caucus member and longtime Trump supporter who was endorsed by the president, comfortably defeated rival Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL sniper who was supported by some top names on the right, in solidly red Alabama’s GOP Senate runoff.
In battleground Georgia’s Republican Senate runoff, an 11th-hour endorsement by Trump helped boost Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion, to victory over former college football coach Derek Dooley, who was backed by popular conservative Gov. Brian Kemp.
TRUMP’S ENDORSEMENT FAILS TO SAVE MAGA CANDIDATE AS BILLIONAIRE ADVANCES IN KEY GOVERNOR RACE
Collins will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the general election in a race that’s among a handful that will likely decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber in the midterms.
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But in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial runoff, the candidate Trump backed, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was also endorsed by Kemp this past weekend, was defeated by billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who ran as an outsider.
On Tuesday, Trump-backed first-time candidate Anthony Constantino, a businessman and former boxer, defeated Robert Smullen, a retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman who had the backing of the state party, in the upstate New York race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial runoff, Trump couldn’t lose.
That’s because, besides backing Evette, he also gave a last-minute endorsement to state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who ended up winning the showdown in a landslide.
midterm elections, donald trump, senate elections, republicans elections, elections, louisiana, politics
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Italy shuts down effort linked to Gaza flotilla group to track Jewish, Israeli tourists
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Italian authorities shut down an anonymous online effort that asked the public to report the locations of Israeli tourists, Italian Jews and businesses believed to have ties to Zionism, drawing condemnation from senior government officials and Jewish leaders who compared the initiative to fascist-era persecution.
«I think we’re going back to the 1930s, to hunting Jews,» Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, said after the Google form began circulating on social media and messaging platforms.
The questionnaire said it was intended to «map Zionist tourism,» property purchases and what it described as «Zionist neo-colonization» in Italy, according to reports. It asked users to identify Jews, Israelis and people believed to be connected to Zionism at hotels, vacation rentals, businesses and other public places.
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People take part in a flash mob entitled «In the same boat» to protest the detention and treatment of activists participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla in Milan, northern Italy, on May 21, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
«The online mapping of so-called ‘Zionist tourism,’ rightly denounced by the president of the Jewish Community of Milan, Walker Meghnagi, is an aberrant initiative, in direct violation of fundamental human rights and the constitutional principles on which our nation is founded,» Italian Senate President Ignazio La Russa wrote in a statement, as translated to English.
«No form of cataloguing of persons on the basis of their religious belief or their connection with Israel is acceptable or justifiable. Behind all this lies a profound anti-Semitism that must be unanimously, firmly, and determinedly rejected,» he added. «We cannot remain motionless in the face of such serious facts that recall the ghosts of the past. To the Jewish Community all my closeness.»
The form was removed following the intervention of Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, Italy’s national coordinator for the fight against antisemitism, according to Italian and Israeli media reports.
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A view of participants in a May 21 flash mob demonstration in Milan, northern Italy, with people gathered in public space to show solidarity with detained Global Sumud Flotilla activists. (AFP via Getty Images)
«This form is intended to record cases of Zionist tourism, property purchases, and, more generally, Zionist neo-colonization in Italy,» the questionnaire stated.
It said the information collected would be received by the Global Sumud Movement, an activist network associated with flotilla efforts to reach the Gaza Strip, and would remain confidential. Respondents were asked to provide sources so the reports could be verified and used to coordinate unspecified «initiatives.»
The Global Sumud Movement denied commissioning the form or knowing about it before the controversy erupted, according to The Jerusalem Post.
«Zionism is one of the issues we work on, but we do not hunt Jews, and we know nothing about this questionnaire,» the group told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. «We did not commission it and had not even seen it before it was taken offline.»
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Seen Oct. 2, 2025, in Piazzale Loreto in Milan, Italy, demonstrators participate in a protest supporting the Global Sumud Flotilla after its interception by the Israeli army off the Gaza coast. (Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto)
The organization said it learned about the questionnaire through news reports and reserved the right to take further action, including issuing a formal statement.
According to La Repubblica, later sections of the form asked respondents to name locations where Jewish or Israeli visitors had been seen and to indicate whether local organizations or activist groups were already «managing the phenomenon.»
Meghnagi warned that collecting and circulating such information could encourage extremists to target Jews and Israelis.
«What is happening today shows that there are unbalanced individuals out there, and if this kind of message spreads widely enough, you are certain to find someone willing to act on it,» he said. «For this reason, mapping where Jews are is extremely serious.»
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Alessandro Morelli, an Italian deputy secretary of state, ripped the form as «abhorrent» and said those responsible should not go unpunished.
italy, anti semitism, israel, hate crime, religion, world, world politics
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Mamdani dodges on ‘political theater’ of empty Netanyahu arrest threat, calls for US action and NYC protests
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined Wednesday to say when he learned the city had no authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after repeatedly campaigning on a promise to detain the Israeli leader if he came to New York.
Pressed over whether the now-abandoned arrest threat amounted to «political theater,» Mamdani said his administration had reviewed the applicable laws and concluded that only the federal government could execute the International Criminal Court warrant.
«It’s clear that the city does not have the authority to execute this warrant,» Mamdani admitted at a New York City Hall news conference Wednesday, urging the federal government to act on the ICC warrant even though the U.S. is not a member of the ICC and does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction in the U.S. or over Israel, which is also not a member.
With the Trump administration already fully rejecting his call to arrest Netanyahu for being a «war criminal,» Mamdani called for New Yorkers to take to protest «if anyone feels a level of frustration or opposition.»
MAMDANI GOES BACK ON CAMPAIGN PROMISE, SAYS NYC CAN’T ARREST NETANYAHU
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been forced to admit his threat to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no force or measure in the law. (Getty Images)
«I believe that this is an arrest warrant that should be executed, and also that I would follow the laws that we had, and I would be respectful of those laws,» he added. «And that is why I asked my administration to review of all applicable laws. And I believe, however, in that same finding, that the United States government does have the ability to both joining the International Criminal Court and executing that work, and that is something that I want to see happen.»
Short of that, Mamdani suggested that people protest when the Israeli leader visits for the United Nations General Assembly, potentially in September.
«This is a city where, if anyone feels a level of frustration or opposition, protest is something that we will always respect,» Mamdani told reporters. «I leave it to New Yorkers themselves to make that decision.»
The mayor was repeatedly asked why he did not resolve the legal question before taking office, given that experts had challenged the legality of his arrest pledge during the campaign.
HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH FLAGS FLY AT ANTI-ISRAEL PROTEST MINUTES AFTER MAMDANI CONDEMNS TERROR PLOT AGAINST JEWS
Mamdani would not provide a date for when his administration informed him that the city lacked the power to carry out the ICC warrant.
«That’s a review that I asked them to do,» he said. «They made it clear that this is not possible through applicable law.»
Mamdani said Palestinian New Yorkers disappointed that he cannot fulfill his arrest promise had reason to be frustrated, declaring that Netanyahu would no longer be welcomed by City Hall.
«I understand it because we are talking about someone who has been charged with crimes against humanity, someone who has visited the city on many an occasion and who has been welcomed by previous mayors,» Mamdani said.
«I want to make it very clear that that welcome ends with me,» he continued. «I will not be welcoming Benjamin Netanyahu or any other war criminals when they come to this city.»
NYC REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER SLAMS MAMDANI ANTISEMITISM OFFICE AS A ‘BLACK HOLE’ LACKING PUBLIC-FACING RESOURCES
President Donald Trump has forcefully rejected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s threats to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under an unenforceable International Criminal Court arrest warrant that the U.S. nor Israel are a party to. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
Mamdani also faced questions over criticism that his focus on Netanyahu created a one-sided account of the Israel-Hamas war.
Asked directly whether he considered Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack to be genocide, Mamdani did not use that term.
«I consider Oct. 7 to be a horrific war crime,» he said. «I’ve considered it to be something that should be deeply opposed with every single fiber of our being.»
Mamdani said his approach was rooted in what he called the «universality of humanity,» arguing that officials should not «pick and choose which crimes against humanity we oppose.»
The mayor also said he would support honoring ICC warrants against Hamas leaders as well as Netanyahu.
«My interest in executing that warrant is not specific to Benjamin Netanyahu, but to anyone who they put a warrant towards for war crimes and crimes against humanity,» Mamdani said.
He accused Netanyahu of having «orchestrated this genocide» in Gaza and described the Israeli prime minister as a «war criminal.» Israel has repeatedly rejected genocide allegations and condemned the ICC case as illegitimate.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said his administration is exploring whether the city has legal authority to arrest Netanyahu if he visits for the U.N. General Assembly. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
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Mamdani said he remained committed to protecting Jewish New Yorkers, including those who disagree with his position.
«My responsibility to them is to ensure that they are cherished, they are celebrated and they are safe in their city,» he said, «and that never are they made to feel as if their opinions on any one issue is the precondition for that safety.»
zohran mamdani, benjamin netanyahu, new york city, international law, politics
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