Trump tells South Carolina: Pretend I’m on the ballot — and vote for Darline Graham

BS BULLETIN:

Trump made a personal plea for Darline Graham ahead of Tuesday’s runoff: “Pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.”
Graham faces conservative Rep. Ralph Norman, who calls Trump’s endorsement a “head scratcher.”
Trump warned Republican voters that congressional losses could threaten his border and tax agenda.

Donald Trump has decided that merely endorsing Darline Graham wasn’t enough. He wants South Carolina Republicans to imagine his name printed right beside hers.

With Graham facing Rep. Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s Republican Senate runoff, Trump descended on Myrtle Beach Friday night and made the race about something much bigger than filling the seat once occupied by Graham’s late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham.

“What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot,” Trump told the crowd. “Just come and vote. It’s so important.”

And Trump wasn’t exactly subtle about the stakes. “If we lose, you’re going to lose your border, you’re going to lose your tax cuts,” he warned, casting the South Carolina contest as part of the larger fight over control of Congress and preservation of his second-term agenda. He also predicted Democrats would move again to impeach him if they recapture Capitol Hill.

The presidential rescue mission comes after Graham suffered a rough debate performance this week, including an admission that she was “not that informed on national security” when asked about Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Trump defended her before arriving in South Carolina. “She’s very smart, and she was being honest,” he said. At the rally, Graham turned her lack of political experience into a selling point of her own: “They say I’m not a politician. You know what I say? Guilty as charged.”

Norman, a House Freedom Caucus member who finished second in the initial primary, has argued that Trump should have backed the candidate with a longer conservative record in Congress. He called the president’s Graham endorsement a “head scratcher” and pointed to his own voting record in support of Trump’s agenda.

That makes Tuesday an interesting test of Trump’s pull over Republican voters. Graham led the first round with 32.7% to Norman’s 24.6%, but neither came close to the 50% needed to avoid the runoff. Rep. Russell Fry finished third with 19.7%, leaving his voters potentially decisive in round two.

Trump brought plenty of reinforcements Friday, including Sens. Tim Scott and John Barrasso and Fry himself. And lest anyone mistake this for a routine endorsement appearance, Trump even offered Myrtle Beach a victory bonus: if Graham wins, he said he’ll return and play the city’s best golfer.

MY QUICK TAKE

There are endorsements, there are strong endorsements, and then there is Donald Trump essentially grabbing the ballot, crossing out the candidate’s name and writing TRUMP — TRUST ME in Sharpie.

Darline Graham had a debate night bad enough to make every campaign consultant reach simultaneously for the Maalox, and Trump’s response was basically: Fine. Everybody stop looking at her résumé and look at me.

Ralph Norman, meanwhile, has the unenviable task of running against Trump’s candidate while explaining that he is also very much a Trump guy.

Welcome to the modern Republican primary: “I support Trump more than the person Trump supports.”

Tuesday should be fascinating.