MARYLAND — At former president Donald Trump’s first campaign appearance since the FBI conducted a court-approved search of Mar-A-Lago and Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox impulsively backed Trump with a pledge to use the state police and state National Guard to oppose the Biden administration, Trump promised Cox “we’ll be out there helping you” this election season. Afterward, Cox said it would be “great” if Trump came to Maryland to campaign for him, adding that he spoke to Trump and that he is “all in to help, whatever he can do.”
In his relentlessly partisan speech in Pennsylvania, Trump said of Democrats “This nation does not belong to them,” telling the crowd “This nation belongs to you. This is your home. This is your heritage.”
The divisiveness did not stop there. Trump used Cox’s presence as an opportunity to slam Governor Larry Hogan, calling him a “RINO governor” who “wants to run for president [but] it’s not gonna work” and who “doesn’t want [Cox] because this man is all for our country.”
Further exacerbating the GOP’s political civil war in Maryland, Cox, as is his trademark, followed Trump’s lead, putting out a press release accusing Hogan of using Maryland “as a steppingstone for selfish presidential ambitions” and condemning the imaginary “division and hate being sewn [sic] by Joe Biden, Wes Moore, and Larry Hogan.”
“Dan Cox’s fealty to Donald Trump knows no bounds,” said Maryland Democratic Party spokesperson Ernest Bailey. “From echoing election conspiracy theories and organizing buses for Trump’s January 6th rally to threatening to use the state National Guard against the federal government, Cox’s blind loyalty to Trump is absolute and dangerous for Marylanders. Despite Trump’s promise to help Cox, he and Cox’s attacks on anyone and everyone who is not in lockstep with their MAGA agenda will only serve to damage the Cox campaign.”