2026-05-17T10:00:51.689Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
詹姆斯·布莱尔有六个月的时间捍卫共和党在国会的执政地位——但他首先需要向党内传递一个信号。
作为白宫副幕僚长，布莱尔花了数周时间策划打压印第安纳州一群违抗总统要求、反对更有利国会选区划分方案的共和党议员。他亲自协助招募和审查他们的初选对手，并制定了旨在终结他们政治生涯的战略。
本月，其中5名持反对立场的共和党议员初选落败，当晚，胜利的布莱尔在X平台上发布了罗素·克劳在《角斗士》中的动图并配文：“你们难道不高兴吗？”
“有时候你可以凭良心投票，其他时候你必须追随老板，”印第安纳州初选结束次日，布莱尔告诉CNN，他指的是唐纳德·特朗普总统。“而由他来决定何时需要这样做，因为他是当选的党领袖。我的工作就是执行这一点。”
被同事称为“预言家”、就连朋友都评价其“冷酷无情”的36岁布莱尔，已成为共和党政坛中最有权势、最令人畏惧的操盘手之一。在白宫内部，他被视为幕僚长苏西·怀尔斯离职后的潜在继任者。在国会山，他让党内脆弱的多数派保持团结。在全国范围内，他已向桀骜不驯的共和党人发出警告，无论目标多么不起眼。这场重塑中期选举选区版图的惨烈中期重划选区之战？正是布莱尔的创意。
如今，这位千禧一代操盘手将接手或许是他最艰巨的任务。未来几周，他预计将暂时离开白宫职务，领导共和党捍卫其国会多数席位的工作——这一艰巨任务因特朗普支持率下滑、不得人心的战争、持续的经济焦虑以及2024年助总统胜选的联盟出现早期裂痕而变得更加复杂。
一份计划正在成形。据熟悉相关数据的人士透露，他们将最集中的精力放在约30至35个众议院选区。特朗普的顾问私下承认，两年前动员起来助总统入主白宫的部分临时选民可能不会再次投票，因此他们正在开展大规模、精密的数据运营来寻找新选民。
布莱尔表示，恐惧将是主要的动员动机。宣传口号是：你真的想让民主党重新掌权吗？
这种信心部分源于民调显示民主党也极不受欢迎，以及对特朗普顾问所称的竞选团队的信任——他们坚称该团队比2018年时更先进，远优于民主党团队。
布莱尔将拥有巨额竞选资金可供支配——特朗普支持的超级政治行动委员会之间的资金总额近4亿美元——这是共和党在总统第一任期内未曾拥有的财政优势。布莱尔拒绝透露有多少资金将用于秋季选举，但坚称共和党将拥有必要的资源。他将监督共和党各团体的开支协调，确保实现历来难以达成的行动一致。
共和党内部的担忧与日俱增。从支持“让美国再次伟大”阵营的民调专家理查德·巴里斯到共和党亿万富翁大金主肯·格里芬，各方都在为11月的大面积失利做准备。北卡罗来纳州参议员汤姆·提利斯近日在《政客》杂志上警告称，共和党面临着“我们需要解决的选民热情差距”。一些共和党人私下怀疑特朗普是否会慷慨斥资帮助共和党候选人。
今年早些时候，当重划选区战略面临瓦解风险时，对布莱尔中期选举策略的抱怨——包括特朗普本人也曾表达不满——达到了顶峰。布莱尔的支持者认为，他是共和党保住众议院席位的最佳，或许也是唯一的希望。
“我并没有完全对中期选举感到绝望，因为我知道我们有詹姆斯，”佛罗里达州共和党众议员安娜·宝琳娜·卢娜说道，她称赞布莱尔拯救了她的首次众议院竞选。“万一着火了，就打破玻璃找人帮忙，而他们就是这么做的，启用了詹姆斯。”
詹姆斯·布莱尔阐述共和党中期选举战略
https://www.cnn.com/
从布莱尔踏入共和党政坛的早期阶段起，他的强硬作风和忠诚度就脱颖而出。
2011年，布莱尔从佛罗里达州立大学获得金融学学位后不久，他的简历就交到了时任佛罗里达州众议员理查德·科科伦手中。科科伦后来成为佛罗里达州众议院议长，是一位好斗的保守派人士，他与布莱尔通过兄弟建立了联系——两人的兄弟都是塔拉哈西一家顶级游说公司的合伙人。
科科伦回忆说，他当时在坦帕郊外的一家奇利斯餐厅与布莱尔对面而坐，追问他之前一位名声不佳的雇主的情况。他原本以为这位年轻求职者会大肆吐槽前老板。但布莱尔没有说前任老板的坏话。科科伦还是雇佣了他。
“如果你在生活中基于个人便利做决定，那么总有一天你会有机会背叛生命中的每一个人，”布莱尔说。“我不是那种人。”
作为科科伦的得力助手，布莱尔亲眼见证了佛罗里达共和党人在塔拉哈西彰显多数党优势——他也迅速因以冷酷高效的执行力贯彻命令而闻名。
例如，在佛罗里达共和党摆脱了威胁到当时冉冉升起的新星马可·卢比奥政治生涯的此前一笔支出丑闻后，该党找到了一种新的财务处理方式：将许多开支通过布莱尔的个人信用卡走账。州竞选财务记录显示，2015年至2017年间，时年25岁左右的布莱尔累计获得了超过150万美元的报销款。
科科伦称这样做效率更高，但也让公众更难追踪这些支出。
“没有詹姆斯不愿做的工作，”科科伦说。“你永远无法比詹姆斯更努力，而且他毫无谦卑之心。他什么都愿意做。”
布莱尔正是在这段时期首次结识了怀尔斯。怀尔斯刚刚在2016年大选中帮助特朗普拿下佛罗里达州，而布莱尔正准备参与科科伦的州长竞选。两人立刻相互赏识。
“我知道他极其聪明，”怀尔斯在谈到对布莱尔的最初印象时告诉CNN，“我喜欢招揽这类人才。”
科科伦曾推出一则极具争议的广告，围绕特朗普的反移民信息展开：一段脚本化场景，描绘一名无证移民举枪对准镜头，射杀一名年轻白人女性。布莱尔协助制作了这则广告。但科科伦在正式宣布参选前退出了竞选，布莱尔转而投身时任众议员罗恩·德桑蒂斯的竞选团队。
特朗普的背书帮助德桑蒂斯通过初选，但当他作为共和党候选人竞选陷入困境时，总统派遣怀尔斯前去稳定团队。她和布莱尔一起带领德桑蒂斯取得了该州历史上差距最微弱的胜利之一。
两人都短暂留在德桑蒂斯的团队中——布莱尔担任副幕僚长，怀尔斯负责他的政治运营——但在德桑蒂斯上任第一年就被排挤出局。这次决裂在共和党政坛引发了多年余波，至今仍困扰着德桑蒂斯。怀尔斯和布莱尔此后一直保持密切联系。
当新冠疫情迫使特朗普取消在北卡罗来纳州夏洛特举行的2020年共和党全国代表大会计划时，怀尔斯指派布莱尔在杰克逊维尔组织替代活动（最终也被取消）。同年晚些时候，他协助怀尔斯第二次帮助特朗普拿下佛罗里达州。
次年4月，特朗普处于政治“流亡”状态，怀尔斯在海湖庄园召集了一个小型聚会。这是布莱尔首次与特朗普会面，特朗普想知道为何佛罗里达州的投票动员模式奏效，而其他摇摆州却输给了乔·拜登。布莱尔向他介绍了他们接触非传统共和党选民的独特方法——包括犹太选民、拉丁裔和在社会问题上持保守立场的黑人选民。据在场人士透露，对话持续了两个半小时，所有人都清楚特朗普将再次参选。
布莱尔有年幼的家庭，原本计划在妻子生下第三个孩子后，于超级星期二前后加入特朗普的第三次总统竞选团队。但怀尔斯另有打算。2023年9月，她说服布莱尔搬到西棕榈滩，协助锁定爱荷华州党团会议初选的胜局。
他一直工作到选举日，将佛罗里达模式转化为全国性的投票动员行动，目标群体是通常不参加选举投票的人群，如年轻男性，同时在历来支持民主党的少数族裔群体中开拓阵地。
“我并不擅长很多事情，但我擅长组建团队，”怀尔斯说。“而他几乎立刻就契合了我看待竞选或挑战的方式。他就是一位如此可靠的执行者，对我来说，合作其实相当容易。”
特朗普解释为何聘用政治助手詹姆斯·布莱尔
https://www.cnn.com/
布莱尔最终带到华盛顿的强硬战术，首先在佛罗里达州初选中接受了检验，那次初选留下了伤痕累累的候选人和至少一起诉讼。
“我们常说詹姆斯：没有比他更好的朋友，也没有比他更糟糕的敌人，”佛罗里达州共和党战略家布拉德·赫罗德说道，他是与布莱尔一同在州共和党中崛起的密友。“我们这个行业的人有时没有足够的勇气去赢得政治斗争所需的一切。詹姆斯不是这类人。”
2022年，来自佛罗里达州中部的金融规划师伊丽莎白·科内尔报名参选州众议院议员，挑战布莱尔正助力当选的候选人。在初选期间，她遭到当地博主、保守派煽动者雅各布·恩格斯的攻击，后者发布了一系列针对她个人生活、生意和投票记录的帖子。这些帖子随后由付费给布莱尔所在公司的政治委员会推广。
科内尔在初选落败前就提起了诽谤诉讼，她的律师称这些攻击是虚假的，损害了她的职业声誉。他们的诉状指出，通讯记录和发票显示布莱尔的公司雇佣了一名私家侦探来挖掘科内尔的负面材料，将调查结果提供给恩格斯，支付他发布这些内容，并通过短信和邮件向选民推送这些帖子。
诉状中包含的一段交流记录显示，布莱尔查看了科内尔的支持率数据后写道：“我认为到下周末，我们就能大幅扭转这一局面。”诉状称，次日就寄出了印有恩格斯其中一篇帖子的邮件。
布莱尔及其公司起初辩称这些短信和邮件受第一修正案保护言论，但在2024年总统竞选期间与科内尔达成了保密和解。通过电话联系到科内尔时，她拒绝置评。她的律师告诉CNN，布莱尔签署了一份要求移除相关帖子的声明，但拒绝提供副本。一名法官后来裁定恩格斯败诉——部分原因是他未应诉——并命令他向科内尔支付20万美元。科内尔的律师表示，恩格斯至今未支付这笔款项。
恩格斯告诉CNN，他过去曾成功抗辩多起诽谤诉讼，但布莱尔与科内尔和解损害了他的案子。恩格斯说，布莱尔“把我丢在了风口浪尖”。
布莱尔以和解为由拒绝讨论科内尔一案，但为自己毫无保留的政治手段进行了辩护。
“半途而废在生活中永远行不通，”布莱尔说。“你只会事后后悔。”
民主党方面也将布莱尔塑造成了可怕对手和当今好斗政治的化身。上个月，众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯宣布计划以“ maximum warfare”（全力战争）回应共和党重划选区的行动。
发言时，杰弗里斯身后立着一幅巨大的特朗普画像——而在他左肩后方，赫然是布莱尔标志性的光头剪影。
在华盛顿，布莱尔也采取了类似的行事风格。一名接近总统团队的人士将他描述为白宫的“执法者”，而他也自称是特朗普的“垃圾场猎犬”之一。
官员们称赞布莱尔推动特朗普的全面税收和支出法案“大美法案”在分歧严重的国会获得通过。一名高级顾问表示，布莱尔扮演了白宫的“恶警”角色，这样特朗普就不必亲自出面——这与总统第一任期截然不同，当时特朗普亲自充当强硬派，同时也树敌无数。
“每个人都知道他是个不好惹的严肃人物，”卢娜谈到布莱尔时说道。
并非所有共和党议员都认可这种方式。一名因担心遭到报复而要求匿名的议员称布莱尔是“恶霸”。其他人则对他所谓的近乎不加掩饰的威胁感到不满——提醒人们特朗普的人气，暗示有更忠诚的共和党人等着取代他们的席位。布莱尔否认自己在发出威胁，坚称他只是在陈述事实。
大多数时候，布莱尔都能为特朗普达成目标。印第安纳州的重划选区斗争是为数不多的例外。
今年早些时候，特朗普支持当地官员芭芭拉·威尔逊参加初选，挑战印第安纳州州参议员格雷格·古德——后者是持反对立场的共和党议员之一。当另一名名为亚历山德拉·威尔逊的候选人报名竞选同一席位时，白宫急于避免选票上出现重复姓氏。布莱尔在2月中旬直接致电亚历山德拉·威尔逊，警告她过去的拒捕指控和她丈夫最近的酒驾行为将被用作攻击武器。他预测如果她不退出，将迎来“一场极其丑陋的竞选”。
“他们会告诉该选区的每位选民这类事情，”布莱尔说道，据威尔逊录制并分享给CNN的录音显示。“因为他们不必讲述你的一面之词。他们只会讲述他们想让人们听到的那一面。”
当时已怀孕六个月的亚历山德拉·威尔逊不肯退让。一个支持特朗普的政治行动委员会投放了布莱尔曾描述的广告。
“他们做得太过分了，给我带来了这么多麻烦，真让人心烦，”她告诉CNN。“但有不少人说：‘你没有任由他们摆布，真了不起。政治不该是这样的。’”
布莱尔称这是“一通完美的电话”——借用了特朗普用来描述自己有争议电话的说法。
两位威尔逊都落败了。古德保住了席位。
当被问及布莱尔是否曾做得太过火时，怀尔斯回答说：“再过十年，也许会吧。”
“但就我们目前面临的局势，以及总统迄今为止所遭遇的一切而言，还没有，”她补充道。“你不能双手被绑着去战斗。这不负责任。而当攻击如潮水般涌来时，你必须以同样的方式回应。”
在白宫内部，尽管布莱尔在联邦政策方面背景有限，但他已成为怀尔斯几乎所有议题的得力助手。他负责的事务涵盖大麻政策、食品安全、加密货币立法、监控法、医疗保健和贸易。
有一次，在特朗普处理爱泼斯坦档案的风波威胁到政府议程之际，布莱尔被短暂指派负责该问题的相关信息传递。值得注意的是，上周布莱尔陪同特朗普前往中国参加与中国领导人习近平的高层会谈，而怀尔斯则留在国内。
“我有点慢热，也很挑剔，”怀尔斯说。“当有我无法处理的事情时，詹姆斯就是我托付的人选，能把事情办好。我甚至都不用担心。”
多名人士告诉CNN，如果怀尔斯离职，布莱尔将是接替她职位的热门人选。当被直接问及是否相信布莱尔能胜任她的工作时，怀尔斯说“我相信”，不过她补充说自己打算在特朗普的任期内留任。
他暂时离开白宫负责中期选举工作，反映出特朗普对保留共和党执政地位的高度重视。在回顾2018年选举周期共和党失去40个众议院席位的教训后，特朗普团队得出结论，必须成立一个专门的外部运营机构，不受日常治理事务的束缚，这一点至关重要。
“总统筹集了大量资金，我们也将投入大量资金，”怀尔斯说。“只要法律允许，我们将协调所有开支。而我做不到这一点。詹姆斯坐在这里也做不到。”
“总得有人来当交通警察。”
最近几周，随着布莱尔准备全面接任新职务，好运降临到了他身上。
他的妻子曾是坦帕湾海盗队啦啦队员，后来成为政治顾问，两人在3月底迎来了第四个孩子。法院裁决也大幅有利于他的重划选区战略：一项裁决废除了弗吉尼亚州由民主党主导绘制的国会选区地图；另一项裁决为美国南部共和党控制的州重新划分边界铺平了道路，这些边界划分方式会削弱长期以来有利于民主党的少数族裔占比高的选区的影响力。
这些胜利平息了布莱尔经历的一个艰难冬季和早春，当时他的重划选区计划看起来岌岌可危。据多名人士透露，去年12月印第安纳州共和党人拒绝接受白宫的要求时，特朗普大发雷霆，指责布莱尔造成了这场尴尬。
布莱尔对此不屑一顾：“特朗普热爱这场战争。”
CNN的杜加尔德·麦康奈尔为本报道贡献了内容。
Why Trump put his ‘bad cop’ in charge of rescuing the GOP in the midterms
2026-05-17T10:00:51.689Z / CNN
James Blair has six months to defend Republican power in Congress — but first he needed to send a message to his party.
Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff, spent weeks plotting to crush a group of Republican lawmakers in Indiana who defied the president’s demands for a more favorable congressional map. He personally helped recruit and vet their primary opponents while designing a strategy intended to end their political careers.
The night five of those Republican holdouts fell this month, a triumphant Blair thumped his chest on X with a gif of Russell Crowe in “Gladiator”: “Are you not entertained?”
“Sometimes you can vote your conscience, other times you have to vote with the boss,” Blair told CNN the day after the Indiana primaries, referring to President Donald Trump. “And he gets to decide when that is, because he’s elected party leader. My job is to implement that.”
Called “the Oracle” by colleagues and “ruthless” even by friends, 36-year-old Blair has become one of the most powerful and feared operators in Republican politics. Within the White House, he’s seen as a potential successor to chief of staff Susie Wiles if she ever stepped down. On Capitol Hill, he has kept the party’s fragile majorities in line. Across the country, he has put recalcitrant Republicans on notice, no target too small. The bruising mid-decade redistricting battle that’s reshaping the midterm map? That’s Blair’s brainchild.
Now, this millennial operative will embark on perhaps his most difficult assignment. In the coming weeks, he is expected to step away from his White House role to lead the GOP’s efforts to defend its congressional majorities — a challenging task further complicated by Trump’s sagging approval ratings, an unpopular war, persistent economic anxiety and early signs of fracture in the coalition that carried the president to victory in 2024.
A plan is taking shape. The most intense focus will fall on roughly 30 to 35 House races, according to people steeped in the data. Trump’s advisers privately acknowledge that some of the sporadic voters they activated two years ago to carry the president into the White House may not return, so they are running a large, sophisticated data operation to find new ones.
Fear, Blair said, will be a primary motivator. The pitch: Do you really want Democrats back in power?
The confidence stems in part from polling that shows Democrats are largely unpopular, too, as well as faith in a political operation that Trump advisers insist is more advanced than it was in 2018 and far superior to that of the Democratic Party.
Blair will have a massive war chest at his disposal — nearly $400 million between Trump-aligned super PACs — a financial advantage the GOP didn’t have during the president’s first term. Blair declined to say how much is earmarked for the fall, but insisted Republicans would have the necessary resources. He will oversee the coordination of spending across GOP groups, ensuring alignment that has historically been elusive.
Concerns within the GOP are mounting. Voices ranging from MAGA-aligned pollster Richard Baris to billionaire GOP megadonor Ken Griffin are bracing for widespread losses this November. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis recently warned in Politico that Republicans face a “voter enthusiasm gap that we need to address.” Some Republicans privately doubt Trump will spend freely to help GOP candidates.
Grumbling about Blair’s midterm tactics — including, at one point, from Trump himself — peaked earlier this year when the redistricting strategy seemed in danger of unraveling. Those in Blair’s corner see him as the party’s best, and perhaps only, hope to keep the House.
“I’m not totally black-pilled on the midterms because I know we have James,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who credits Blair with rescuing her first House campaign. “In case of fire, break glass, and they did by unleashing James.”
James Blair lays out GOP strategy for the midterms
https://www.cnn.com/
From his earliest days in Republican politics, Blair’s intensity and loyalty stood out.
Shortly after Blair graduated in 2011 from Florida State University with a finance degree, his resume landed in front of then-Florida state Rep. Richard Corcoran. A future Florida House speaker and a combative conservative, Corcoran had a connection to Blair through their brothers, who were partners at a powerhouse Tallahassee lobbying firm.
Corcoran recalled sitting across from Blair at a Chili’s just outside Tampa and pressing him about a previous employer with a murky reputation. He expected the young applicant to unload. Blair declined to dish on his former boss. Corcoran hired him.
“If you make decisions in life based on your own personal convenience, there will be an opportunity where it’s convenient to betray everybody in your life,” Blair said. “I’m not one of those people.”
As Corcoran’s right-hand man, Blair had a front row seat as the Florida Republicans flexed their majorities in Tallahassee — and he quickly gained a reputation for carrying out marching orders with merciless efficiency.
For example, as the Florida GOP emerged from a previous spending scandal that threatened the political career of then-rising Marco Rubio, the party found a new approach to its finances: It routed many expenses through Blair’s personal credit card. Between 2015 and 2017, Blair, then in his mid-20s, racked up over $1.5 million in reimbursements, state campaign finance records show.
Corcoran said it was more efficient. It also made the expenditures harder for the public to trace.
“There was no job that James wouldn’t do,” Corcoran said. “You’re never going to outwork James, and he has no issue with humility. He’ll do anything.”
Blair first encountered Wiles during this period. Wiles had just delivered Florida for Trump in the 2016 election and Blair was preparing to run Corcoran’s gubernatorial campaign. They recognized something in each other immediately.
“I knew he was super smart,” Wiles told CNN of her initial impression of Blair, “I like to get those people.”
Corcoran made early waves with a provocative ad built around Trump’s anti-immigrant messaging: a scripted scene portraying an undocumented man pointing a gun straight into a camera lens and shooting a young White woman. Blair helped produce it. But Corcoran dropped out before formally entering the race, and Blair moved to the campaign of then-Rep. Ron DeSantis.
Trump’s endorsement carried DeSantis through the primary, but when he struggled as the GOP nominee, the president dispatched Wiles to steady the operation. Together, she and Blair steered DeSantis to one of the narrowest victories in state history.
Both briefly stayed in DeSantis’ orbit — Blair as deputy chief of staff while Wiles ran his political operation — before the two were pushed out in his first year. The rupture reverberated through Republican politics for years and continues to dog DeSantis to this day. Wiles and Blair remained close throughout.
When Covid-19 forced Trump to abandon plans for the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, Nortj Carolina, Wiles tapped Blair to organize a replacement in Jacksonville (which was ultimately canceled as well). Later that year, he helped Wiles win Florida for Trump a second time.
The following April, with Trump in political exile, Wiles assembled a small group at Mar-a-Lago. It was Blair’s first meeting with Trump, who wanted to know why the Florida turnout model worked when other battleground states fell to Joe Biden. Blair walked him through their unique approach to reaching nontraditional Republican voters — including Jewish voters, Latinos and socially conservative Black people. The conversation ran two-and-a-half hours, according to a person there, and it was clear to everyone that Trump was running again.
Blair had a young family and planned to join Trump’s third presidential campaign after his wife gave birth to their third child, around Super Tuesday. Wiles had other ideas. In September 2023, she convinced Blair to move to West Palm Beach and help lock up the Iowa caucuses.
He stayed through Election Day, turning the Florida model into a nationalized turnout operation targeting people who don’t typically vote in elections, like young men, while making inroads into minority groups that had historically voted Democrat.
“I don’t do a lot of things well, but I am a good former of teams,” Wiles said. “And he, almost immediately, fit into the way I was looking at races or challenges generally. He’s just such a proven performer, it’s actually kind of easy, if you’re me.”
Trump explains why he hired political aide James Blair
https://www.cnn.com/
The hardball tactics Blair would eventually bring to Washington were first tested in Florida primaries that left bruised candidates and at least one lawsuit in their wake.
“We often say of James: There’s no better friend, but there’s no worse enemy,” said Florida Republican strategist Brad Herold, a close friend who rose through the state party with Blair. “People in our business sometimes don’t have the stomach to do what it takes to win political battles. James is not one of these people.”
In 2022, Elizabeth Cornell, a financial planner from Central Florida, filed to run for state House against a candidate Blair was working to elect. She was attacked throughout the primary by Jacob Engels, a local blogger and conservative provocateur who published a string of posts focused on her personal life, her business and her voting record. Those posts were then promoted by a political committee paying Blair’s firm.
In a defamation lawsuit she first filed before she lost the primary, Cornell’s lawyers said the attacks were false and harmed her professional reputation. Their complaint pointed to communications and invoices they said showed Blair’s firm hired a private investigator to find damaging material on her, fed the findings to Engels, paid him to publish them, and then drove the posts to voters through texts and mailers.
One exchange included in the complaint showed Blair reviewing Cornell’s favorability numbers and writing, “l think we will have made a solid dent in reversing that by end of next week.” Mailers went out the next day featuring one of Engels’ posts, the lawsuit said.
After first arguing the texts and mailers were protected speech under the First Amendment, Blair and his firm settled with Cornell confidentially during the 2024 presidential campaign. Reached by phone, Cornell declined to comment. Her lawyer told CNN that Blair signed a statement requesting the posts be removed but declined to provide a copy. A judge later ruled against Engels — in part because he stopped responding — and ordered him to pay Cornell $200,000. He has yet to do so, her lawyer said.
Engels noted to CNN that he had successfully defended himself against several defamation lawsuits in the past, but by settling with Cornell, Blair had hurt Engels’ case. Blair, Engels said, “left me holding the bag.”
Blair declined to discuss the Cornell case, citing the settlement, but he defended his no-holds-barred approach to politics.
“Half measures never work in life,” Blair said. “You just come to regret them.”
Democrats, too, have leaned into the image of Blair as a fearsome adversary and avatar of today’s combative politics. Last month, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced plans to respond to Republican redistricting with “maximum warfare.”
The message was delivered beside a giant image of Trump — and looming just over his left shoulder was a cutout of Blair’s unmistakable bald head.
In Washington, Blair has operated in a similar fashion. One person close to the president’s team described him as the White House’s “enforcer,” and he has called himself one of Trump’s junkyard dogs.
Officials credit Blair with shepherding Trump’s sweeping tax and spending package, the “Big Beautiful Bill,” through a fractious Congress. One top adviser said Blair acts as the White House “bad cop,” so Trump doesn’t have to be — a departure from the president’s first term, when he served as his own strongman and burned bridges in the process.
“Everyone knows he’s a serious person and not to mess with him,” Luna said of Blair.
Not all Republican lawmakers appreciate the approach. One, speaking anonymously due to fears of retaliation, called Blair a “bully.” Others have bristled at what they describe as barely veiled threats — reminders of Trump’s popularity and suggestions that more loyal Republicans are waiting to take their seats. Blair has denied that he’s leveling threats, insisting he is just stating facts.
More often than not, Blair delivers for Trump. The Indiana redistricting fight offered a rare exception.
Earlier this year, Trump backed Barbara Wilson, a local official, in a primary against Indiana state Sen. Greg Goode, one of the Republican holdouts. When another Republican named Alexandra Wilson filed for the same seat, the White House scrambled to avoid duplicative surnames on the ballot. Blair called Alexandra Wilson directly in mid-February, warning her that a past charge of resisting arrest and her husband’s more recent DUI would be weaponized. He predicted a “really nasty race” if she didn’t get out.
“They’re going to tell every voter in the district about this kind of stuff,” Blair said, according to a recording made by Wilson and shared with CNN. “Because they don’t have to tell your side of the story. They will tell the side of the story they want people to hear.”
Alexandra Wilson, six months pregnant at the time of the call, wouldn’t budge. A Trump-aligned PAC ran the ad Blair had described.
“It’s upsetting how far they took it and what they put me through,” she told CNN. “But I’ve had quite a few people say, ‘Good for you for not letting them do that to you. This isn’t how politics should be.’”
Blair called it “a perfect phone call” — borrowing a phrase Trump has used to describe his own controversial calls.
Both Wilsons lost. Goode survived.
Asked whether Blair has ever gone too far, Wiles responded, “In another decade, maybe.”
“But not with what we’re up against and what has happened to the president so far,” she added. “You can’t go to a fight with one hand tied behind your back. It’s not responsible. And when it’s coming at you, it’s such a river. You have to respond in kind.”
Inside the White House, Blair has become Wiles’ go-to on almost any topic despite his limited background in federal policy. He handles a portfolio that spans marijuana policy, food safety, crypto legislation, surveillance law, healthcare and trade.
At one point, as the fallout from Trump’s handling of the Epstein files threatened the administration’s agenda, Blair was briefly put in charge of messaging around the issue. Notably, Blair accompanied Trump to China last week for high-stakes talks with leader Xi Jinping, while Wiles stayed back.
“I’m a little bit on the slow-to-trust side, and I’m persnickety,” Wiles said. “And when it’s something I can’t do, James is my go-to to get it done right. I don’t even worry.”
If Wiles were to leave her post, Blair would be on the short list to replace her, multiple people told CNN. Asked directly whether she believed Blair could do her job, Wiles said “I do,” though she added that she intended to remain for the rest of Trump’s term.
His temporary departure from the White House to run the midterms effort reflects how much Trump prioritizes keeping Republicans in power. After reviewing the 2018 cycle, when the GOP lost 40 House seats, Trump’s team concluded a dedicated outside operation, free from the daily machinery of governing, was essential.
“The president has raised a lot of money, and we’ll spend a lot of money,” Wiles said. “To the extent the law allows it, we’re going to coordinate all of that. And I can’t do that. Neither can James sitting here.”
She added: “Somebody has got to be a traffic cop.”
Fortune has turned Blair’s way in recent weeks as he prepares to fully step into his new role.
He and his wife — a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader-turned-political consultant — welcomed their fourth child in late March. Court rulings have broken sharply in favor of his redistricting strategy: One decision invalidated a Democratic-drawn congressional map in Virginia; another opened the door for Republican-controlled states across the South to redraw boundaries in ways that dilute minority-heavy districts long favorable to Democrats.
The wins have quieted a difficult winter and early spring, when Blair’s redistricting plan appeared on thin ice. When Indiana Republicans balked at the White House’s demands in December, Trump lashed out and blamed Blair for the embarrassment, according to multiple people.
Blair brushed it off: “Trump loves this war.”
CNN’s Dugald McConnell contributed to this report.
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