Trump's presidential 'heir' plunged into gay porn scandal

Daily Mail​

05-05-2025

A MAGA favorite to become president after Donald Trump is facing a growing crisis over a gay porn scandal.
Last Friday, Virginia Gov Glenn Youngkin asked Republican nominee for lieutenant governor John Reid to drop out of the race amid allegations he ran a social media page filled with naked pictures of men.
Reid, who is gay and married, denied that the page was his and refused to resign, claiming the page was created in an effort to sabotage his bid to become lieutenant governor.
Now Youngkin is stuck in a bind between needing to publicly back the Republican candidate in Virginia's statewide elections and not wanting to align himself with the man hit by controversy.
The crisis, which could damage Youngkin's chances on the national stage in '28, escalated further over the weekend as one of the governor's top aides resigned.
Matt Moran, who ran Youngkin's Spirit of Virginia PAC, stepped down after he was accused of pressuring Reid to remove himself from the GOP ticket.
Moran has publicly denied he pushed Reid to step aside.
It comes after a GOP top brass tried to pressure Reid to quit over the alleged lewd social media page.
Under Virginia law, Youngkin cannot run for a second consecutive gubernatorial term in the commonwealth.
Many feel that instead, he could launch a 2028 presidential bid as President Donald Trump completes his second term.
Coincidence? The candidate's Instagram handle is 'jrdeux,' the same username a Tumblr account has used to repost hundreds of explicit images
But Youngkin is not an early frontrunner when it comes to the 2028 race.
Instead, Republicans seem to prefer the likes of VP JD Vance or the President's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, to take over Trump's political legacy, polls show.
In an interview with NBC News on Sunday, Trump named Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his potential replacements.
Reid is the first openly gay candidate for statewide office in Virginia.
Youngkin is unable to run for a second consecutive term for governor under Virginia law.
His Republican lieutenant governor Winsome Earle-Sears is running to be the next leader of the commonwealth.
'The Governor was made aware late Thursday of the disturbing online content,' Youngkin's Spirit of Virginia PAC wrote in a statement.
'Friday morning, in a call with Mr Reid, the Governor asked him to step down as the Lt Governor nominee.'
Reid was connected to explicit posts on a Tumblr account with the handle 'jrdeux', which the candidate has used on other social media sites like Instagram and Threads.
Reid's husband, Alonzo Mable, has tagged his spouse in social media posts using the 'jrdeux' moniker.
The Tumblr account includes a litany of gay pornographic images and kinks.
The former radio host says that Youngkin's political operation is threatening him with further damaging information in an effort of hurting his chances at election to be Virginia's next lieutenant governor.
'I can tell you that's not my account,' Reid said in a five-minute video posted on X last week addressing the controversy.
In the clip, Reid notes he was approached by individuals who warned him the account could be damaging to his campaign.
'I demanded to see the evidence, and someone created a social media account with my Instagram name, a name, which I've had for years, but this fake account reposted nude pictures of other people, models, and porn models,' he says.
'That's not my account, and anyone on the Internet can open accounts with the same or similar names as other people.'