August 30, 2023 11:30 AM UTC

Trump Buttering Up Colorado MAGA Loyalists

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: As Erik Maulbetsch reports for the Colorado Times Recorder, the Colorado Republican Party is pushing its people to sign a pledge in support of the “January 6 prisoners.” Trump’s message has definitely been received.

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[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”60%”]“These are incredible Colorado patriots, that’s for sure.”

— Donald Trump in a video naming El Paso County GOP leaders[/mantra-pullquote]

The frontrunner for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination isn’t getting indicted again this week (well, probably not), so Donald Trump has time to send out videos to his minions across the land.

Earlier this month, Trump greased up State Republican Party Chair Dave Williams, calling him “a fantastic man and a great friend of mine” in a video played for those in attendance at the Republican Central Committee meeting in Castle Rock.

Yesterday it was the El Paso County Republicans’ turn to get sweet talked by Trump. In this grainy video reposted to Facebook on Tuesday by an El Paso County Republican, Trump thanks the El Paso GOP for supporting “our cause,” calling Chairperson Vickie Tonkins “fantastic” (remember: the previous State GOP administration tried to oust Tonkins on several occasions, most recently in February). Trump also mentions Vice Chair Todd Watkins and Secretary Adriana Cuva before giving another shout out to Williams. The Big Orange Guy does not have many redeeming qualities, but you gotta hand it to him (or his campaign team) for being smart enough to call out prominent supporters by name — even if he probably doesn’t know Todd Watkins from Todd Helton.

Trump goes on to rail against “Crooked Joe Biden,” saying that “you could combine the five worst Presidents in American history” and they didn’t do as much damage to the United States as Biden has done in less than 3 years. Most historians consider Trump to be at the top of the “worst Presidents” list, but, whatever. The rest of the video is just Trump taking credit for everything and reciting his standard list of grand promises for 2024.

There’s no chance that Trump carries Colorado next November after falling here to Biden by 13 points in 2020 (Democrat Hillary Clinton also captured Colorado in 2016 by 5 points). However, Trump will likely play a role in the outcome of several other Colorado contests in 2024 if (and when) local Republican leaders parrot his talking points about election fraud in the 2020 Presidential election, These talking points, of course, are more about Trump trying to stay out of prison than they are about 2024, but logic and reason are not core tenets of the modern Colorado Republican Party.

Trump’s actions may be finally starting to concern some Colorado Republicans, including the gelatin-backboned Rep. Ken Buck (R-Greeley). Other Colorado Republicans could also start speaking out against Trump, but that won’t happen because none of them want to risk the wrath of the MAGA base.

But hey, it’s all worth it if a former President says your name in a video.