Keller on Trump, tariffs and political epitaphs

“I’ve got a bone to pick with Trump when it comes to tariffs,” said Brian Shortsleeve in an interview with us last week.

Uh-oh. That quote could lead Shortsleeve’s political obituary if the polls showing Mike Minogue cruising to a landslide victory over him next week in the GOP gubernatorial primary are accurate, another tombstone inscription in the graveyard of what Massachusetts Republicans were in the PT era.

PT: pre-Trump. Despite a litany of damage done to the Massachusetts economy by Trump’s tariffs, funding cuts, immigration policies etc., his approval rating among Republicans is 74% in a recent UMass poll, down from the post-inaugural heights of 89% but still massive. In a June Suffolk poll, 43% of likely GOP primary voters said Minogue is more aligned with Trump; only 6% said Shortsleeve was. 

No disrespect to Minogue, who has an impressive resume and has put his money where his mouth is. But it’s hard to argue his big lead isn’t padded by the extreme Trump addiction that drives scores of Republicans to ignore electability.

Shortsleeve, an acknowledged Trump voter in 2024 after a flirtation with Ron DeSantis, is hardly a Never Trumper, or even as critical of him as presumptive GOP Senate nominee John Deaton. After complaining about the Trump tariffs in our conversation, he praised the president’s efforts to seal the border, deregulate, and cut taxes. 

Still, Shortsleeve wears the scarlet letters: CB, for Charlie Baker. Being a Baker administration alumnus renders him anathema to the right-wing geniuses who excommunicated the most popular Republican in the state. Factor in the hapless candidacy of another Baker-era figure, Mike Kennealy, who couldn’t even muster 15% of the meager GOP State Convention crowd, and it’s clear the bad blood continues. 

Toward what end?

Jon Keller is a MASSterList columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].

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