On Trump Jr. podcast, a possible Kentucky Senate candidate courts Trump, bashes McConnell
Viewers of the conservative podcast and video stream “Triggered,” hosted by Donald Trump Jr., may have been under the wrong impression as they were waiting for the president’s son to interview Kentuckian Nate Morris on Monday.
A preview screen showed in bold letters: “INTERVIEW WITH KY SENATE CANDIDATE NATE MORRIS.”
But Morris hasn’t declared a run for office — at least not yet.
Despite that, he and a highly sympathetic Trump Jr. laid out the themes for Morris’ potential campaign for more than 20 minutes in their interview.
The themes: bashing the record of Sen. Mitch McConnell and hewing close to President Donald Trump.
As of Tuesday, only former attorney general Daniel Cameron had announced officially for the office on the Republican side, which McConnell announced last month he won’t seek again in 2026. Longtime Sixth Congressional District Rep. Andy Barr is the other political heavyweight reportedly eyeing the job.
On the Democratic side, House Minority Floor Leader Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville, is the only person to have filed to raise money and say she will run for the seat. Some Democratic insiders are also urging top Gov. Andy Beshear advisor Rocky Adkins to consider running, a proposition he has not ruled out.
In the interview, Morris framed himself as the one true Trump loyalist of the bunch, tying himself to the president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda.
“This thing is shaking out to be ‘McConnell vs. MAGA’ in Kentucky, which is all Kentuckians need to know in this race,” Morris said to the younger Trump. “We know what Mitch McConnell has been doing to your father, particularly over the last two months.”
In the early days of the Trump administration, McConnell — who recently stepped down as the longest-serving U.S. Senate party leader in history — voted against three high-profile Trump appointees. He gave a thumbs down to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
McConnell has also made it a point to lobby for continued support to Ukraine, a proposition made more uncertain as Trump has soured on the U.S.’s relationship with the Eastern European country invaded by Russia.
“It’s been sickening to me that he’s opposed your father over and over and over again, and made it his last mission of the Senate to back up the truck for Zelenskyy in Ukraine,” Morris told Trump Jr.
Trump Jr. spoke approvingly of Morris throughout the interview and posted about it to his social media feeds afterward.
Most in Frankfort and Washington agree that an endorsement from the president himself, if given at all, would likely clinch the nomination for any candidate. Morris appears to have gotten the early support of the younger Trump, who has previously helped sway his father toward other candidates.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Morris has “lined up” many top MAGA operatives to work on a potential campaign.
That includes Andy Surabian, a former aide to far right Trump ally Steve Bannon who’s served as spokesperson to Trump Jr. as well as Tony Fabrizio, who was described by POLITICO as Trump’s top pollster.
The president’s son compared Morris to a politician he has heavily supported: Vice President JD Vance.
Trump Jr. and his brother, Eric, both advocated strongly for Vance in his 2022 U.S. Senate race as well as his selection to become vice president alongside their father.
“You actually have a story that’s really similar to another guy that we pushed into a Senate seat and turned into a rock star for the base and for the Republican Party… It sounds a lot like JD Vance,” Trump Jr. said.
Morris, who is friends with Vance, said they were kindred spirits as “the hillbillies out in Silicon Valley.” Vance was a venture capitalist in the tech boomtown around the same time Morris was growing Rubicon.
While Morris criticized Barr during the podcast, he spent most of his fire on Cameron.
According to a pollster, whose cofounder now works for the Cameron campaign, the former attorney general has an early lead over the potential contenders, registering around 39% support among likely GOP primary voters; Barr clocked in just under 18% and Morris, who hasn’t held elected office, was at 2.5%.
Just over 30% of respondents said they would be undecided.
Similar to criticisms leveled by Barr, Morris said that Cameron “squandered” Trump’s endorsement of him in the 2023 governor’s race. Cameron coasted to a primary win in a crowded field, but fell short by five percentage points to Beshear, the incumbent Democratic governor, in the general election.
“My dad endorsed him because it was the guy at the time, or whatever it was, and he wouldn’t even embrace it in Kentucky,” Trump Jr. said. “He was like ‘oh, it’s great, I’ll get it,’ but they wouldn’t run an ad… I mean, I can understand if you’re running as a Republican in New York City, maybe, but like in Kentucky, that’s all you needed.”
Morris took a moment on the podcast to respond and even preempt some criticisms of the company he founded, Rubicon.
While Cameron has fired shots across the bow on certain pro-diversity, equity and inclusion policies adopted by Rubicon when Morris was at the helm, Morris justified those decisions by saying that the fate of the company was on the line, with up to “hundreds of millions of dollars to lose.”
One of Cameron’s current jobs is leading the anti-“woke” 1792 Exchange. The group focuses criticism particularly on diversity policies as well as socially and environmentally conscious investment practices within the business sphere.
Morris said that Cameron, whose career has mostly been in politics, wouldn’t understand the tough decisions a businessman has to make.
Still, most of the interview was focused on the topic that Morris seems to believe plays best for him: McConnell. He has tried to paint both Barr and Cameron as McConnell “puppets,” highlighting Cameron’s deep ties to the leader and Barr recently stating that McConnell was a “mentor” to him.
“This is really simple. This is a referendum on McConnell, period. You either stand with McConnell or you stand with President Trump. There is no in between,” Morris said.
Cameron, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, said that Morris’ political persona has been recently fabricated based on what he thinks will get him elected, compared to the former AG’s own very public record since gaining office in 2019.
“(He’s) just made himself up, out of like two months. It’s been the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Cameron told the Wall Street Journal.
“He was in the land of misfit toys,” Cameron said, and decided to “become something that sounds good to the Republican primary voter, but it’s just like not real.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 3:08 PM.
