As the 2026 election cycle took shape earlier this year, Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones had to be optimistic about his future. The Republican was widely seen as the front-runner in the state’s gubernatorial primary, in part because of his advantage as the incumbent lieutenant governor, and in part because he had received endorsements from Donald Trump and outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp.
What Jones did not see coming was a campaign from a wealthy upstart, healthcare executive Rick Jackson, who ended up defeating Jones in a bitter and expensive primary runoff.
In the aftermath of the GOP race, the lieutenant governor accepted the results but did not endorse his former rival.
For the president worried about Georgia disappointing him again, that’s not good enough. In fact, as NOTUS reported, Trump apparently hatched a provocative plan in pursuit of an intraparty détente.
Germany was on Burt Jones’ mind.
President Donald Trump had offered to make the Georgia lieutenant governor the ambassador to one of Europe’s largest countries — an extravagant, if common, consolation for a Republican rebounding from a primary loss. But Trump wanted something in exchange for the new gig: for Jones to endorse, the Republican nominee for governor, people familiar with the conversations told NOTUS.
In other words, the president envisioned a transaction of sorts: In exchange for the Georgia Republican endorsing the nominee who defeated him, Jones would be rewarded with a plum ambassadorship despite his total of qualifications or background in diplomacy.
While NOTUS’ reporting hasn’t been independently verified by MS NOW, none of the relevant players made any effort to deny its accuracy.
For now, Trump’s bid for party unity in Georgia hasn’t had much success. Jones still hasn’t endorsed Jackson. And, in fact, the outgoing lieutenant governor is actually suing his party’s gubernatorial nominee, and the civil litigation is ongoing.
It’s also worth noting that if the president’s plan does prove effective, it would be the latest in a series of instances in which he rewarded an election loser with a federal job.
But reading this, a story came to mind from several years ago.
Remember Joe Sestak? In 2010, the then-House Democrat from Pennsylvania made an offhand comment about being offered a job in the Obama administration if he agreed not to run against Sen. Arlen Specter, who had switched parties to become a Democrat a year earlier.
The remark didn’t seem especially provocative, but Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California described it as a scandal comparable to Watergate. And conservative commentator Jeffrey Kuhner similarly argued at the time, in reference to the Sestak matter, “The White House is facing a major scandal — one that threatens to bring down President Obama. It could be his Watergate.”
In hindsight, those claims were obviously quite silly, and the story (such as it was) quickly evaporated. But 16 years later, the incumbent Republican president has offered a Republican candidate a job as part of a deal to get him out of a Senate race, and he offered a different Republican candidate a job as part of a deal to get him to issue an endorsement.
It’s hard not to notice the lack of hysteria from partisans who saw rumors of a Sestak offer as a serious controversy.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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