Decision in the Bluegrass
By 
Andy Barr is in, Nate Morris is out in the run to replace Mitch:
President Donald Trump endorsed a Republican congressmember to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell while rejecting a self-styled MAGA candidate with backing from Elon Musk…
The endorsement gives Barr a massive boost to win the GOP nomination over former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the deep-red state.
Trump dangled an ambassador-ship in front of Morris:
Nate Morris is dropping out.
On Friday, President Donald Trump said he asked Morris to end his Kentucky Senate campaign to join his administration as an ambassador.
“I’ve asked Nate to step aside from that Race to take a role in my Administration as an ambassador,” Trump’s post on Truth Social reads in part. “Nate is Oxford educated, tough as nails, LOVES our Great Nation, and will represent the United States very well, overseas, or otherwise.”
I mean… okay? Congratulations to whatever warm, comfortable country that finds itself with the pleasure to host Ambassador Morris. Doesn’t really seem in his wheelhouse but I suspect there are other things going on behind the scenes.
A couple thoughts… this is obviously a power play by Trump to push out a guy favored by Elon. Morris was evidently quite beloved by the tech bro set, while Barr is the sort of bog-standard Republican that used to be part of the McConnell Machine but is now a committed MAGA partisan. Ending the primary now is a cagey move in the sense that it frees up quite a bit of GOP money that was going to be wasted on the trivial difference between Senator Barr and Senator Morris; both were heavily on the air with plenty of support from PACs. And Trump may be counting on the idea that he can get both of them in the next cycle:
For my own deeply selfish part, I’d like to thank President Trump for getting the Barr and Morris ads off of my TV, because it was getting extremely gross; lots of AI slop of illegal immigrants coming here to rob and murder and rape and make us transgender. Riley Gaines had cut some ads for Barr and with any luck I won’t need to see any more of them.
FWIW last week Senator Paul gave a talk to the students, faculty, and guests of the Patterson School, focused on foreign policy. As you’d expect given his idiosyncratic views I found myself “nod… nod… nod… yes… what the hell?…. I can’t sign up for that… nod… okay… nod… nope nope nope.” He was asked a question about the Markwayne Mullin nomination and went into some detail about the physical extent of his injuries from the attack in his backyard a few years back, which led to some quite severe debilitation for a eighteen months or so.