Kari Lake

Kari Lake is officially that guest who’s overstayed her welcome.

The gubernatorial loser spends a lot of time in Florida at Mar-a-Lago, despite running for Senate in Arizona. And the gaudy resort’s glorified property manager would like her to head home.

Donald Trump has been grumbling to allies that Lake is in Florida too often, five sources told the Washington Post. He’s worried that the former TV news anchor, who lost Arizona’s gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 18,000 votes, is hurting his chances in the battleground state.

“At one point last year, after grumbling for months that she was at his Mar-a-Lago Club too often, Trump gently suggested to Lake that she should leave the club and hit the campaign trail in Arizona,” the WaPo reports. “Trump has also asked others if she can really win in Arizona and if she might drag down his own poll numbers as he seeks the presidency again in 2024.”

Trump narrowly lost Arizona in 2020, falling about 11,000 votes short. Following the race, the Grand Canyon State became a point of obsession for him and his cohort of election deniers, much like Georgia.

Trump is facing 10 criminal counts in Georgia for his failed efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results. Eighteen of his allies, including Rudy Giuliani and a cadre of conspiracy-minded attorneys, are also facing criminal charges. Many of them have already pleaded guilty, thought the ex-president maintains his innocene.

Last week, Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes, a Democrat, announced she was charging Giuliani and other co-conspirators for their meddling in her state’s 2020 presidential election.

That leads us back to Lake, who continues to wrongly insist the presidential election was rigged. She’s also lost every single of her own legal challenges in regards to the 2022 gubernatorial race. Earlier this month, the ultra-conservative Arizona Supreme Court declined to hear her lawsuit challenging the use of electronic voting machines in the state, dismissing the case without comment.

Lake’s focus on election denialism is one reason why almost nobody is buying her charm offensive. Another other big reason is her caustic personality.

When running for governor, the  ex-TV personality spared no insults when it came to knocking down her Republican opponents, denigrating each candidate on a personal level.

Former Rep. Matt Salmon, who Lake said was “OK with special needs kids being raped” because he opposed her plan to install cameras in school bathrooms, told the New York Times he’s ignored her overtures.

“There’s nothing authentic about her,” he said. “She touts her endorsements, but two years ago she would have criticized anyone with those same endorsements and declared them swamp creatures.”

This time around, Lake is enjoying support from the Republican establishment, though their backing may be more out of necessity. A GOP source told the WaPo that sitting senators are only holding back their criticism because “she’s the candidate we have.”

On top of concerns about her electability, few people trust Lake within the GOP, including Trump allies. Early this year, an ally of Lake’s released a recording of then-Arizona party head Jeff DeWitt encouraging her to bow out of the Senate race. He resigned following the incident.

“I received an ultimatum from Lake’s team: resign today or face the release of a new, more damaging recording,” DeWitt said in a statement.

Sources say Trump learned about Lake’s surreptitious recording on the night of the New Hampshire primary, and expressed surprise.

“She tapes everything?” he asked. “That’s good to know.”

It’s ironic that Trump is reportedly cooling on Lake due to her omnipresence at Mar-a-Lago. She started visiting there with such frequency as part of her campaign to be Trump’s #2, which is now a mere pipe dream. (It’s too bad, too, considering Lake’s top rival, Kristi Noem, is probably out after boasting about killing her puppy by shooting it execution style.)

“Trump has now all but ruled out Lake as a vice-presidential pick, remarking to multiple advisers that he would not choose her as vice president because she lost the 2022 gubernatorial race in Arizona,” according to the WaPo.

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Lake has taken more than a dozen trips outside of Arizona since announcing her candidacy, including for multiple Trump events. She also campaigned for Ohio Republican senate nominee Bernie Moreno, even though he’s outperforming her.

For her part, the MAGA anti-drag queen says she’s campaigning around the country to help the party. But GOP insiders wishes she would help herself first.

“They keep saying she’s a team player and doing all this travel,” said a source. “Our position is, if you want to help the team, go home and win the seat.”

That’s not to say Lake still doesn’t have her fans within the GOP, or the confines of Mar-a-Lago. She recently hosted a fundraiser at the property and raised more than $1 million.

The proceedings also included an unhinged rant from Roseanne Barr, who pushed QAnon conspiracy theories and encouraged kids to drop out of school.

“So I’m just going to say to you, please drop out of college, because it’s going to ruin your lives!” she added. “Do me a favor, drop out. They don’t teach you nothing good. Email me, or Twitter me, or whatever you call me, and I’ll help you with your life. But you’ve gotta get out of college, because it’s nothing but devil-worshipping, baby blood-drinking, Democrat donors.”

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And therein lies another problem for Lake: she’s just too crazy! Her Democratic opponent, pro-LGBTQ+ rep. Ruben Gallego, is viewed as a much more mainstream candidate. (He’s also not ensnared in countless lawsuits.)

So far, the candidates’ disparity in fundraising backs up that notion. Lake’s campaign had about $2.5 million cash on hand at the end of last quarter, whereas Gallego’s had more than $10 million.

That’s probably because Gallego is running an actual statewide race. He’s visited the Southern border more times than Lake, even though she’s made illegal immigration the focus of her campaign (in addition to the election denialism).

There’s also the issue of abortion. Much like Trump, Lake originally criticized Arizona’s reintroduction of a near-total abortion ban from1864, despite calling the draconian measure a “great law” in 2022.

But more recently she’s called on local sheriffs to enforce the edict.

“We can have that law, but it’s not going to be enforced with the people we have in office,” she said. “The only people who can enforce that law are our sheriffs. And we need to start asking the sheriffs if they’re willing to enforce that. I don’t think they are.”

Like many MAGA GOP candidates, Lake is learning a tough lesson: Trumpism only works for Trump. For Lake, perhaps no detail shows that reality more than the reaction to her criticisms of beloved late senator John McCain. Lake urged McCain Republicans to “get the hell out” of the GOP during her gubernatorial campaign.

Though Lake later said she was joking (haha?), the damage has been done.

The WaPo says an Arizona Republican told Trump he’s in “good shape,” but Lake’s past statements about McCain are one of her biggest weaknesses.

That’s rich, because when it comes to lambasting McCain, Lake is just taking cues from her twice-impeached idol. While running for president in 2016, Trump belittled McCain’s experiences as a POW in Vietnam, saying he prefers soldiers who “aren’t captured.”

Trump won Arizona by nearly five points in 2016, FWIW.

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