{"id":183768,"date":"2026-02-28T00:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183768\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T00:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T00:39:18","slug":"trump-visits-corpus-christi-for-rally-declines-to-endorse-cornyn-paxton-or-hunt-in-u-s-senate-primary-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/183768\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump visits Corpus Christi for rally, declines to endorse Cornyn, Paxton or Hunt in U.S. Senate primary race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The administration also authorized a\u202f12% expansion\u202fin liquefied natural gas exports at the Corpus Christi terminal.<\/p>\n

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 President Donald Trump traveled to Corpus Christi on Friday afternoon to talk about his energy and economic policies amid a red-hot Senate Republican primary race. All three GOP candidates joined him, just days before the primary election.<\/p>\n

Here’s a roundup of what happened before, during and after his appearance on stage at the Corpus Christi rally:<\/p>\n


\nTrump recognizes Texas Republican Senate candidates but stops short of any endorsement <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great attorney general, Ken Paxton. Hi Ken,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have a great senator, John Cornyn,\u201d he added, looking at the seated officials from the stage. \u201cYou\u2019re in a little bit of a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The primary is Tuesday, and Cornyn is trying to survive a challenge from Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, who was also at the event in Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n

Trump mentioned Hunt, too, after running through the long list of Texas U.S. House members present.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd another friend of mine who is doing very well, Wesley Hunt. Wesley Hunt, what a good job,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

In a nod to the competitive primary, Trump noted, \u201cYou do have an interesting election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by reporters, Trump said he has \u201cpretty much\u201d decided whom to endorse but declined to specify.<\/p>\n

He later said he\u2019s \u201cpretty much\u201d decided whom to endorse in the competitive three-way GOP race.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s not ready to give it away, telling reporters \u201cno, not yet,\u201d when asked if he would say.<\/p>\n


\n\u2018Tony Gonzales is here\u2019 <\/p>\n

The embattled House Republican, who is fending off calls to resign after reports of an affair with a former aide who later set herself on fire, made his way to Trump\u2019s Corpus Christi event.<\/p>\n

The president made mention of his presence, saying: \u201cCongressman Tony Gonzales is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corpus Christi is not in Gonzales\u2019 district.<\/p>\n

As Trump gave his shoutout to Gonzales, he added, \u201cTony, congratulations.\u201d It was unclear what Trump was congratulating him for.<\/p>\n

Trump has endorsed Gonzales in his primary.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n


\nActor Dennis Quaid speaks at Trump rally <\/p>\n

Quaid, who played President Ronald Reagan in a 2024 biopic, got a lift on the real Air Force One and a speaking role behind the presidential seal. Trump invited him on stage briefly during his rally in Corpus Christi, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Corpus Christi, and I love Donald Trump,\u201d Quaid said.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Sen. Ted Cruz posted a 14-second video of Quaid, dressed in a suit, seated next to Trump at a conference table aboard the Air Force One.<\/p>\n

In addition to playing the 40th president in \u201cReagan,\u201d Quaid also appeared as President Bill Clinton in \u201cThe Special Relationship,\u201d a 2010 film about former British Prime Minister Tony Blair\u2019s relationship with his U.S. counterpart.<\/p>\n


\nTrump says he is \u2018entitled\u2019 to a third term <\/p>\n

The president again floated the idea of running for a third term during an address at the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we do one more term, should we do one more?\u201d he asked the crowd, which responded with cheers.<\/p>\n

The president added that \u201cwe\u2019re entitled to it, because they cheated like hell,\u201d in reference to the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

Allegations from Trump of massive voting fraud have previously been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration\u2019s Homeland Security Department.<\/p>\n


\nEnergy secretary approves export expansion at Texas LNG terminal <\/p>\n

Ahead of Trump\u2019s visit, Energy Secretary Chris Wright authorized a\u202f12% expansion\u202fin liquefied natural gas exports at Cheniere Energy\u2019s Corpus Christi terminal.<\/p>\n

The order, signed Thursday as Wright toured the site, makes the terminal the second largest LNG export project in the U.S.<\/p>\n

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first export cargo of U.S. LNG gas produced from the lower 48 states. The U.S. is now the world\u2019s largest LNG exporter.<\/p>\n

Wright said he was proud to be in Corpus Christi, \u201cstanding alongside the American workers responsible for unleashing American energy dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group that opposes LNG exports, said the Trump administration was \u201cdoubling down on a harmful energy source at exactly the moment when we should be full speed ahead on safe, clean and reliable renewable energy.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nTrump misquotes Calvin Coolidge <\/p>\n

Trump on Friday put himself among the many who have misquoted a famous sentiment from the 30th U.S. president.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Calvin Coolidge: \u2018The Business of America is BUSINESS!\u2019\u201d he wrote in a Truth Social post as he headed to Texas aboard Air Force One.<\/p>\n

However, this isn\u2019t exactly what Coolidge said. His actual words, said during an address in Washington to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Jan. 17, 1925, were: \u201cAfter all, the chief business of the American people is business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coolidge was talking about the \u201cdouble purpose\u201d of American newspapers — providing readers with information while also having their own business interests. He concluded that this dual role did not \u201cseem to be cause for alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nTrump visits a Whataburger <\/p>\n

The president stopped at the burger joint after addressing a crowd at the Port of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to get some stuff for Air Force One, and I\u2019m going to get the hell out of here,\u201d he said before greeting workers and patrons.<\/p>\n

Trump also suggested that he would buy food for everyone in the restaurant, saying: \u201cCan you handle it? Hamburgers for all!\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The administration also authorized a\u202f12% expansion\u202fin liquefied natural gas exports at the Corpus Christi terminal. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-183768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}