ATLANTA, June 14 -- On Saturday night, with 48 hours remaining before Georgia Republicans choose their Senate candidate, Donald Trump endorsed Representative Mike Collins, calling him "MAGA Mike" and "a true friend, fighter, and WARRIOR." The announcement was not merely a party endorsement. It was an escalation in a political war between Trump and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp that began in 2020 and has never been formally resolved.

Trump's language left no ambiguity about either the endorsement or the contempt behind it. Collins, he wrote, "has been with me from the very beginning" - the highest possible credential in Trump's political vocabulary. His characterisation of Collins' opponent, Derek Dooley, was delivered with breezy cruelty: ...