INSIDE D.C. WITH JOHN GIZZI NEWSMAX WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT
TRUMP PUTS STAMP ON POSTAL SERVICE • With Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announcing his intention to retire after five years on the job, watch for the Trump administration to give the U.S. Postal Service the “USAID treatment.” Just as it drastically
shrunk the functions of the U.S. Agency for International Development and placed the remains under the aegis of the State Department, the administration will soon shrink the quasi- governmental USPS and place its remains in the Department of Commerce. President Donald
Trump has long made little secret of his desire to make the Postal Service a privatized entity and allow it to compete with United Parcel Service. The USPS currently employs about 525,469 workers — one of the largest civilian workforces in the U.S. In fiscal year 2024, it lost $9.5 billion.
WHITE HOUSE STIRS POT • President Donald Trump’s propensity to get involved in Republican internecine warfare in various states has got be curbed, say several state GOP leaders who spoke to Newsmax — off the record, of course. Recently, Trump got involved in the race for Michigan state GOP chairman by endorsing former state co-chair and
56 NEWSMAX | APRIL 2025
Women for Trump founder Meshawn Maddock. She was eliminated on the first ballot in a race eventually won by fellow Trump supporter and state Sen. Jim Runestad. “Why Trump would get
involved in a race with three of his supporters [the third was Catholics for Trump leader Joe Cela] is beyond any of us,” a former state Republican official told Newsmax. “I don’t know who’s giving him political advice, but they ought to cease and desist.”
GOP SHOWDOWN IN SUNSHINE STATE • Florida, the state President Donald Trump calls home, is another example of him never being shy about getting involved in contested GOP primaries. He recently gave a ringing endorsement to Rep. Byron Donalds for governor in 2026, just as lame-duck GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis was publicly musing about a bid to succeed him by his wife, Casey.
Should the first lady try
to become governor herself, it would set the stage for the Sunshine State’s two most popular Republicans (who competed for the presidential nomination last year) to battle it out by proxy in the gubernatorial primary. Also eyeing the race for governor is former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, a friend of both Trump and DeSantis.
8 IN GOP VIE FOR N.J. GOVERNOR • One contest President Donald Trump is likely to take a pass on is the Republican primary for governor of New Jersey. At least two Trump enthusiasts — radio talk show host Bill Spadea and former state Sen. Ed Durr — are vying in the eight-candidate GOP contest, and more importantly, the near- successful 2021 nominee Jack Ciattarelli has the early support of many of Trump’s biggest financial backers in the Garden State. Ciattarelli, a former assemblyman who lost a
heartbreakingly close (51%- 48%) gubernatorial race to a now-termed out Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, is considered among the most moderate of the GOP hopefuls. And he called Trump a “charlatan” during his initial presidential run in 2016 (although he strongly endorsed the former president’s comeback bid in ’24). Well aware of Ciattarelli’s less- than-pure record on Trump, his high-dollar New Jersey supporters nonetheless agree he can defeat any Democrat nominee and are urging the president to stay out of the race.
Will Mitch McConnell Hurt or Help Successor?
• No one was surprised when eight-term Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced at 83 he would not seek reelection next year. The question now is whether the once-powerful former Senate GOP leader will bless a chosen heir in the Republican primary. If he does, McConnell watchers say, it will almost surely be 2023 gubernatorial nominee and former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. But many in the state GOP hope McConnell will stay out of the race, given that another likely contender, Rep. Andy Barr, is, like Cameron, an alumnus of the McConnell Senate staff. One observer of Bluegrass State politics noted McConnell’s estrangement from President Donald Trump and recent votes against some of his Cabinet appointees, concluding that “Mitch is so unpopular with the MAGA crowd, his endorsement would likely hurt a primary candidate.”
ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES
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