Ken Paxton is once again blaming Donald Trump for his campaign troubles. And once again, it was caught on tape.
In the latest recording, Paxton points directly to Trump’s war with Iran, high gas prices and rising diesel costs as major problems for his Senate campaign.
In the earlier recording, he blamed Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas for hurting his numbers.
And, apparently, there’s another thing coming from Washington that Paxton says he can’t control.
The latest audio was obtained by Axios, which reported that Paxton privately acknowledged that affordability is “by far our biggest problem” and that his campaign is “having a hard time with numbers.”
When asked what was hurting the campaign, Paxton dismissed tariffs.
“It’s not tariffs,” he said. “It’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel.”
Paxton is running for Senate as a Republican and has been one of Trump’s political allies.
But behind closed doors, he’s now complaining that the president’s war with Iran and the resulting pressure on fuel prices are creating problems for his campaign.
And then he made another point that sounds increasingly familiar.
He doesn’t control it.
“So many factors in this federal race are uncontrollable,” Paxton said. “I don’t make the decisions.”
That line takes on a little more weight when you remember what he said in the other leaked recording.
Just days earlier, audio from the same fundraiser revealed Paxton complaining that Trump’s Republican midterm convention in Dallas had hurt his campaign.
“When we did that convention, it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said, according to audio obtained by The New York Times.
He also complained that campaign decisions were coming from Washington and that he didn’t control many of them. Axios separately reported that Paxton said he didn’t control messaging and that decisions were coming from Washington.
Gas prices have been a political headache for Republicans as the Iran conflict has pushed fuel costs higher. Axios reported in July that the renewed fighting and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz had pushed the national average above $4 a gallon, while Republicans were increasingly worried about the political consequences.
Now Paxton is saying essentially the same thing behind closed doors.
The economy is hurting. Fuel prices are hurting. And his campaign is feeling it.
But there’s a particularly awkward wrinkle here.
Paxton has spent his political career aligning himself with Trump.
Trump endorsed him in the Republican primary, and Trump’s political operation has since poured substantial resources into helping his Senate campaign. Axios reported that a pro-Trump PAC spent $131 million in just 17 days supporting Paxton and attacking his Democratic opponent, James Talarico.
So Paxton is hardly operating independently of Trump.
Yet the leaked recordings show him privately identifying Trump’s political event and Trump’s Iran war as factors hurting his campaign.
And that’s what makes the pattern so striking.
Twice now, Paxton has been caught on tape describing problems for his Senate campaign — and twice, he has pointed fingers at Trump.
