Trump didn’t hold back this time.
President Donald Trump is taking aim at one of the Republican Party’s best-known veteran strategists after Karl Rove announced that he plans to support a Democrat in a Texas statewide election.
Trump sharply criticized Rove, the longtime Republican strategist who served as a senior adviser to former President George W. Bush, after Rove said he intends to vote for Democrat Jon Rosenthal instead of Republican nominee Bo French in the race for the Texas Railroad Commission.
The disagreement has exposed another divide inside the Republican Party, with Trump defending his influence over the modern GOP while Rove and several prominent Texas Republicans have criticized French over controversial comments involving University of Texas students.
Trump Unloads on Karl Rove
Trump made his feelings about Rove clear in a lengthy Truth Social post.
The president said Rove has been “so bad for the Republican Party” and accused the veteran strategist of frequently being wrong about Republican politics.
Trump also accused Rove of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” arguing that the two have repeatedly found themselves on opposite sides of major political battles over the past decade.
According to Trump, many of the candidates, policies and political strategies favored by Rove have been rejected as Trump’s influence over the Republican Party has grown.
Trump then questioned why conservative-leaning media organizations continue to feature Rove as a political commentator.
He referred to Rove as a “RINO” — short for “Republican in name only” — before ending his criticism by calling him a “stone cold loser.”
The comments represented the latest chapter in the long-running tension between Trump and Republicans associated with the party’s pre-Trump establishment.
Why Karl Rove Is Supporting a Democrat
The immediate dispute revolves around Republican Texas Railroad Commission nominee Bo French.
Rove told attendees at a private Headliners Club luncheon in Austin that he plans to vote for Democratic candidate Jon Rosenthal rather than French.
According to The Texas Tribune, three people who attended the event said Rove also described French as a “bigot.”
The decision represents a significant political break for Rove.
Rove reportedly said the last time he voted for a Democrat was in 1994, when he supported former Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock.
His decision to cross party lines comes after French attracted widespread criticism for a social media post featuring a photograph of University of Texas at Austin students of South Asian descent.
Controversial UT Photo Sparks Backlash
French posted an image of students celebrating following a Texas Longhorns football game and made comments questioning what the student population at the university had become.
The remarks quickly generated criticism, including from fellow Republicans.
Students pictured in the photograph also pushed back against the assumptions surrounding their backgrounds.
Dhairya Gupta and Rahul Kodali, two students shown in the image, are U.S. citizens.
Kodali told reporters that whether someone is an immigrant should not change how that person is regarded as an American. Gupta immigrated to the United States when he was 5 years old and later became a citizen.
The episode soon grew beyond a social media dispute as prominent Texas Republicans began publicly condemning French’s comments.
Texas Republicans Speak Out
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said Republicans should be able to argue for tougher immigration policies without attacking people because of their race or ethnicity.
Burrows said French’s post had “crossed the line” and called for its removal.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn also criticized the remarks.
Cornyn questioned whether other Republican officials would condemn what he characterized as intolerance and racism, warning that political parties can damage themselves when such behavior becomes normalized.
French, however, has continued to defend his broader argument.
During a conservative radio appearance, he dismissed some of the Republican officials criticizing him as less conservative members of the party and noted that many had previously opposed him during the Republican primary.
The controversy therefore involves more than one candidate’s social media post. It has also become part of the larger debate over the direction and boundaries of the Republican Party.
What Does the Texas Railroad Commission Do?
Despite its name, the Texas Railroad Commission has virtually nothing to do with railroads today.
The three-member commission is the primary state regulator of Texas’ oil and natural gas industry.
That gives the agency considerable influence in a state that remains at the center of America’s domestic energy industry.
The commission oversees areas including oil and gas production, pipeline safety and other energy-related activities.
French is the Republican nominee for the commission, while Rosenthal, a Democratic state representative and oil-field engineer, is running as the Democratic nominee.
Libertarian Arthur DiBianca is also running in the November election.
Rove’s Decision Carries Political History
Rove’s involvement has helped turn what would ordinarily receive limited national attention into a much more visible political story.
For decades, Rove has been one of the most recognizable Republican strategists in the country.
He played an important role in George W. Bush’s political rise in Texas and later served in Bush’s White House as senior adviser and deputy chief of staff.
But the Republican Party has changed considerably since the Bush administration.
Trump’s rise reshaped the GOP’s leadership, voter coalition and political priorities, while creating recurring disagreements between Trump-aligned Republicans and figures associated with the party’s earlier establishment.
Trump and Rove have clashed repeatedly during that transformation.
The latest dispute makes those differences visible once again.
Democrats Enter the Fight
Democrats have also seized on the Republican disagreement.
James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate running to succeed Cornyn, thanked the Republican senator for criticizing French and called on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico’s Republican opponent, to do the same.
Paxton responded by accusing Talarico of having his own history of dividing Texans along racial lines.
That exchange expanded the controversy beyond the Railroad Commission contest and into another major Texas election.
A Bigger Republican Debate
Trump’s attack on Rove highlights an ongoing disagreement within Republican politics over who represents the party and what standards Republican candidates should be expected to follow.
Rove’s decision is particularly striking because he has spent decades working to elect Republicans.
At the same time, criticism of French has not come exclusively from Democrats. Several prominent Republicans in Texas have publicly objected to his remarks, while French and some of his supporters have pushed back against those criticisms.
Trump’s response makes clear that his long-running feud with Rove remains very much alive.
What began with a photograph of college students has now produced a public dispute involving a Republican statewide nominee, prominent Texas Republicans, a legendary GOP strategist and the president himself.
And with the November election approaching, the controversy has put an unusual national spotlight on a Texas agency that most Americans may never have heard of — but that holds substantial power over one of the nation’s largest energy industries.
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