Lincoln Project calls for revenge on ‘grubby sellouts’ who backed Trump

The co-founder of the Lincoln Project has lashed out at Republicans who backed Donald Trump during his term in the White House, suggesting that they will increasingly distance themselves from the president in spite of his “absurd, doomed lawsuits”. 

In a strongly-worded op-ed for the Daily Beast, former Republican Rick Wilson wrote that “the dark is rising for Trump’s sycophants, toadies and enablers”.

“Their tough-guy acts and f***-your-feelings s***-talk have become a furious whine of complaints and recriminations as a toxic slurry of rage and despair has left a stinging bile in the back of their throats that won’t go away. Trump lost, and they can’t spin their way past it," he wrote.

Mr Wilson went on to say that Republicans will start distancing themselves from Mr Trump, adding that “it would leave them with a sense of shame if they had any.” At the same time, he said certain supporters “still imagine some miracle emerging from the wreckage of Trump’s campaign”.

Blasting the “grubby sellouts”, Mr Wilson said those who were involved in fanning-out conspiracy theories about George Soros or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were worse than the Republicans who jumped fully on board the MAGA train.

“That goes double for you motherf***ers who went inside the Trump White House and kept promising that you were the one who was stopping all the bad s*** from coming down,” he writes. “Either it was always a lie from the beginning, or you sucked at your jobs.”

Mr Wilson warned the incoming Biden administration not to fall for apparent messages expressing goodwill and said: “The other side will work daily to sabotage not only a legislative agenda but the nation itself.”

“Remember, the Trump GOP is shorn of all ideological and philosophical pretence, and even when Trump leaves office, it’s not over. His cultists’ reign of terror will shape elected GOP members as long as he and his foul spawn walk the earth unpunished.”

Editor-at-large of the Daily Beast and a former political strategist, Mr Wilson has been a fierce critic of President Trump for years. In his latest book, Running against the Devil , Mr Wilson wrote that Mr Trump will “go down in history with asterisks next to his name for endemic corruption, outrageous stupidity, egregious cruelty and inhumanity, for diminishing the presidency and the nation, and for being a lout with a terrible wig”.

In his first book, Everything Trump touches dies, the former Republican said he intended his work to be “one of a number of poison darts in the neck of the monster”.

His political action committee the Lincoln Project, formed in 2019, actively campaigned to highlight the damage done during the Trump presidency.

However, the organisation has received flak from Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who recently accused it of being in "scam territory" over its promise to persuade "never-Trump" Republicans to vote forJoe Biden, after it raised $67.4m according to Federal Election Commission data. Ms Ocasio-Cortez said it diverted resources from organisers and groups who were more effective in driving votes for Mr Biden.

Mr Wilson was targeted himself during the presidential election after the Lincoln Project aired TV adverts criticising displays of the confederate flag. Users pointed to his own post sharing an image of the flag in 2012, which was later deleted.