Trump Allies Warn Of Consequences For Candidates Who Fake Trump's Endorsement

Allies of former President Donald Trump are warning political candidates that they'd better not try to fake having an endorsement from Donald Trump, or else. We've already seen past candidates try to fake an endorsement from Trump by using his images in their ads, only to be swiftly met with cease and desist orders. This includes former Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions who tried this tactic. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains why Trump is so adamant about cracking down on these candidates.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Some of Donald Trump's closest allies, including Corey Lewandowski, are actually out there right now, warning potential candidates for the midterms, for special elections, whatever it is, if you're running for office don't you dare fake an endorsement from Donald Trump. If he gives you his endorsement, you're free to do whatever you want with that. But don't you dare pretend that he did. Don't you start posting pictures of you and Donald Trump that you got from a selfie line and act like, oh, he supports me. No, no, no. They're saying there could be consequences if you do that. Here's what Corey Lewandowski said. Lots of candidates pretend to have the support of president Trump, most are full of crap, to clean it up a little bit. You will know when president Trump endorses someone.

Then you have Rob Gleason, former GOP chair from Pennsylvania, also a close ally of Trump. He issued this warning. He said, I would warn people against claiming endorsements from anyone without authorization. When, and if president Trump endorses anyone, it will be very unmistakable. Then of course you have one of Trump's favorite pollsters, John McLaughlin, who said this, until a candidate gets an official statement from president Trump, whether in writing, video or audio, they do not have the official endorsement. It's dishonest. If proven, it could totally backfire. See, I think it's actually the other way around. I think when Donald Trump endorses people that actually tends to backfire. Right. I know y'all want to think that Donald Trump is a king maker. He wants to think he is the king maker. And that's actually the point of all this.

But anyway, candidates that he endorses don't fare too well, haven't over the last five years. So maybe tone it down a little bit. But we do know that in the past, the Trump group, I don't know, you can't call it campaign. It's not the Trump organization. But the Trump group has issued actually cease and desist letters to individuals using Donald Trump's image, likeness, pictures of him claiming that they're friends with him, claiming that he's endorsed them. They've issued cease and desist letters and that includes having to issue a cease and desist letter to Jeff Sessions when he wanted to get his Senate seat back. He was trying to say like, look, I was his attorney general and Trump's like, stop using my name, dude. I didn't give you permission.

And while it's true, look, I'll be totally honest. If, if you don't have permission from a human being to use their likeness or image in any campaign material, you can't use it. I don't care if it's Trump or not. You really can't do that. So his allies here are not wrong in telling people that you can't do this. They're just saying it for the wrong reasons. See, Trump doesn't want people using a fake endorsement because it means they don't have to go down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss his. That's what he wants them to do. He wants them to come groveling to him. He wants them to be in his pocket and he wants them to owe their success to his endorsement. And if you haven't gone through the motions, you're sure not getting that endorsement. And don't you dare try to fake it.