Trump keeps endorsing candidates after his advisers beg him not to

President Trump doesn't see anything wrong with a little election meddling. On Monday, the president tweeted support for Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach, casting aside the opinions of his advisers and GOP officials, reports Axios.
Republican strategists were reportedly crossing their fingers that Trump would stay out of this race, but the president apparently loves seeing his off-the-cuff remarks tangibly change the course of an election. This is not the first race in which Trump has relished the idea of pulling a few strings to favor an unpopular candidate: Advisers were similarly distressed when the president endorsed Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.).
Kobach is the hard-line conservative that Democrats hoped would win the primary, reports The New York Times, because he is a much more controversial candidate than some of the other, more establishment-friendly GOP hopefuls. Trump reportedly wanted to endorse Kobach even earlier, given their similarities and mutual respect for one another, but his staff intervened, telling him it would be too politically risky.
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Trump "thinks it's fun" to have such influence over state-wide races, sources told Axios, and his staff apparently can't stop him from stepping in for a jolly good time. Perhaps advisers will begin using reverse psychology to keep him from commenting on the next primary.
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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.
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