Trump has entered the chat as the kids say, but it’s not the Trump you think.

Donald Trump Jr. – the son of former Republican president Donald Trump who is the likely GOP nominee for president in 2024 – took a swipe at both U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Republican candidate for governor of West Virginia Moore Capito on social media last week.

Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., voted for the amended national security supplemental last week that contained funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, as well as funding to replenish U.S. military munition stockpiles. Some on the MAGA right and the new right oppose additional funding for Ukraine – a U.S. ally – as it tries to repel an invasion of the country by Russia.

Former president Trump has called for that funding to either be done as a loan to Ukraine or removed from the bill entirely. Trump has not been as anti-Ukraine as many on the new right are, and many Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are not happy the national security supplemental includes Ukraine funding.

Donald Trump Jr. – who supported Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in his ill-fated campaign for U.S Senate in 2018 and supports Morrisey’s campaign for governor this year – used the opportunity to hit both Capitos.

“Shelley Moore Capito is part of Senate GOP Leadership & just voted to send billions to Ukraine,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “She’s not up for reelection this year, but her RINO son is running for Governor of West Virginia. MAGA – Send a message to the Ukraine First RINOs & OPPOSE (Moore Capito)…”

Now, I’m not sure why one would vote for or against Moore Capito based on an issue or bill his mother voted for or against. Also, it should be pointed out that despite former president Trump’s endorsement in 2018, three visits to the state by Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. campaigned with Morrisey on Election Day 2018. With the Trump family on Morrisey’s side, he still lost to Manchin by a narrow margin.

I suspect the closest thing to a Trump endorsement for the West Virginia race for governor will be Donald Trump Jr. throwing out tweets. I doubt former president Trump will weigh in.

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On the flip side, the Moore Capito campaign is attacking Morrisey over his handling of the $1 billion opioid settlement between the state and local governments.

While Morrisey brags about securing the largest per capita settlement, the Moore Capito campaign argues that when you factor out what the cities and counties were able to secure, the state’s portion of the settlement doesn’t come close to breaking any national per capita records.

And while Morrisey talks about having decided to not include the state in the national opioid settlement and going it alone along with the cities and counties, the Moore Capito campaign argues that the state couldn’t have joined the national settlement even if it wanted to due to an earlier settlement in 2017 with Cardinal Health that bars the state from future lawsuits against Cardinal.

Cardinal was part of the 2022 settlement with McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen (as well as drugmaker Johnson and Johnson) that resulted in $26 billion in exchange for the states and territories agreeing to drop future lawsuits against the companies. Moore Capito campaign advisor Kent Gates pointed to Morrisey’s past as a D.C lobbyist, including for a pharmaceutical trade group as reported by CBS News in 2016.

“Morrisey went out of his way to include a provision in the agreement that bars West Virginia from filing any future lawsuits against Cardinal Health,” Gates said. “Morrisey settled for less than 5% the amount counties and local governments got back. Had Morrisey not cut a deal letting his family firm’s blue-chip client off the hook, West Virginia could have recouped more than $1 billion from the Big Three opioid distributors alone.”

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Morrisey was also hit last week by Secretary of State and fellow GOP candidate for governor Mac Warner over a press release Morrisey released through the Attorney General’s Office where Morrisey issued a letter to Vice President Kamala Harris urging her to invoke the 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove President Joe Biden from office.

The letter came after a special counsel report that raised issues about Biden’s memory and other issues after interviewing him regarding his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House in 2017 as vice president. Warner, who is no fan of Biden, criticized Morrisey for using his office for a publicity stunt.

“There he goes again,” Warner said. “Every time you turn around, Patrick Morrisey is playing carnival barker trying to get attention. He plays on raw emotion, hoping people overlook his out-of-state inability to relate to West Virginians … He should not be using state employees to prepare and distribute what is clearly a political grandstanding letter and press release.”

It’s a fair point. However, it’s not like Warner doesn’t engage in similar actions himself. At the end of January, Warner had sent out an op-ed raising concerns about the security of the southern U.S. border. Now, he did this under the cover of raising issues about the possibility of illegal migrants trying to vote in upcoming elections. But it can also be argued he was stretching a bit.

Even if the possibility of someone who is not a citizen voting in U.S. elections is real, West Virginia itself already has a good dragnet to catch such illegal votes. So, is Warner raising a valid concern or is he using a hot national issue to signal to Republican primary voters how conservative he is with official resources of his office?

Look, all public office holders do this when they’re running for a different or higher office. I’m not trying to criticize one way or another. But at the same time I do decide what to cover based on whether it’s truly newsworthy or simply someone trying to get in the news. There is a difference.

(Adams is the state government reporter for Ogden Newspapers. He can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)