President Donald Trump unloaded on Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, late Saturday night after she came out against a Justice Department lawsuit tied to Alaska’s high-stakes Senate race.
In a post on Truth Social, the president went after Murkowski for criticizing the DOJ’s lawsuit seeking to block certification of the Alaska Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. Trump has said the lawsuit was filed at his request.
At the center of the fight is a ballot quirk that has Republicans worried. Another man named Dan Sullivan is also on the ballot, and GOP officials fear he could pull votes away from the incumbent senator, potentially handing the race to Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola.
Alaska uses ranked choice voting, a system Trump blasted in his Saturday post as a “TOTAL DEMOCRAT SCAM.”
“The Republicans’ Worst Senator, by far, Lisa Murkowski, of the Great State of Alaska (A State for which I produced, on a continuing basis, Billions and Billions of Dollars, and which Crooked Joe Biden and the Dumocrats had totally shut down — Then I came back, and delivered even more!), who only got elected because of Corrupt Ranked Choice Voting, is upset because I revealed what everyone knows, that the Ranked Choice Voting Ballot is a TOTAL DEMOCRAT SCAM meant to confuse the Voter, so that Senator Dan Sullivan will lose Votes to a man who has never participated in Politics before, named Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr,” Trump wrote.
The president argued that the second Sullivan’s presence on the ballot was part of a Democratic effort to take the seat.
“He is only there because the Democrats want to steal the Election, and Murkowski probably wants that to happen, which is why she is against the DOJ filing a Lawsuit in order to stop this impending crime and tragedy,” Trump continued. “I have delivered for Alaska at Historic Levels, nobody has ever seen anything like it, and all I’m asking for is a FAIR AND HONEST SENATORIAL ELECTION!”
Murkowski, who has frequently broken with her party, had made her position clear the day before. In a Friday post on X, the Alaska Republican denounced the lawsuit and said the federal government should have stayed out of the state’s race.
“Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the State of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot,” Murkowski said. “The Department of Justice should never have filed this lawsuit.”
That argument did little to sway the president, who doubled down on his criticism of the senator in his late-night post.
“Lisa Murkowski is a DISGRACE to Alaska and our Country,” Trump wrote. “You just don’t get any worse!”
Trump also warned Alaska voters about what he believes is at stake if Sullivan’s seat flips to Democrats.
“I hope the Great People of Alaska understand what is happening,” he wrote. “The Democrats are trying to steal this important Republican Seat and, if that happens, everything we’ve done for Alaska will come to an immediate hault (sic).”
The president closed his post with a direct appeal to Alaskans on a ballot question that would scrap the state’s ranked choice system.
“VOTE “YES” AGAINST RANKED CHOICE VOTING, on Ballot Measure 2. SAVE ALASKA!”
The clash marks the latest flashpoint between Trump and Murkowski as Republicans fight to hold onto Sullivan’s seat in a closely watched race that could help decide control of the Senate.
