Trump endorses GOP senator years after asserting 'I will never endorse this jerk again'
By Alex Nitzberg
Published July 22, 2025
After lambasting GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota in 2022 and vowing that he would never endorse the lawmaker again, President Donald Trump issued a full-throated endorsement of the incumbent Republican senator in a Truth Social post on Monday.
Trump previously endorsed Rounds in 2020, but then excoriated the senator in 2022 after Rounds appeared on ABC's "This Week" and described the 2020 election as "fair."
"'Senator' Mike Rounds of the Great State of South Dakota just went woke on the Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020," Trump declared at the beginning of a lengthy statement in January 2022.
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"Even though his election will not be coming up for 5 years, I will never endorse this jerk again," Trump later said in the statement.
"The Radical Left Democrats and RINOS, like 'Senator' Mike Rounds, do not make it easy for our Country to succeed. He is a weak and ineffective leader, and I hereby firmly pledge that he will never receive my endorsement again!" Trump asserted in that statement several years ago.
But in an about-face, Trump has endorsed Rounds for re-election.
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In a Monday Truth Social post, the president called the senator "An America First Patriot," declaring, "Mike Rounds has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election – HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!"
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Tuesday morning but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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Rounds thanked Trump for the endorsement on Monday in posts on X, adding, "I look forward to working with you to make America even better!" Print Close
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