President Trump has picked his fighter in South Carolina — and he's already got a nickname for the other one.
Trump threw his full endorsement behind Darline Graham in the South Carolina Senate race, according to the post, while branding her opponent Annie Andrews as "Annie 'Trannie.'" The nickname is classic Trump: designed to stick, built for a rally chant, and aimed squarely at Andrews' positions on transgender policies.
But the attack went wider than one issue. Trump also hit Andrews over immigration, taxes, policing, military spending and gun rights — arguing, according to the post, that her positions don't reflect the values South Carolina voters hold.
The endorsement is a major moment in a race that's heating up fast. A Trump endorsement in a South Carolina Republican primary is about as close to a kingmaker move as it gets — his backing has decided primaries across the country, and candidates who earn it tend to ride it all the way.
For Andrews, the nickname is a problem that won't go away. Trump's labels have a way of defining opponents permanently — and "Annie 'Trannie'" puts her most controversial positions front and center every time her name comes up.
Graham, meanwhile, gets the full weight of the MAGA machine behind her: the rallies, the fundraising lists, the base energy. In a state Trump carried comfortably, that's an enormous head start.
The South Carolina Senate race just became must-watch television. And Trump just made sure everyone knows whose side he's on.