Donald Trump and his acolytes regularly engage in hugely cringeworthy behavior, but perhaps the most cringeworthy subgenre of “Trump or Trump-adjacent people doing things that make us want to die of secondhand embarrassment“ is the one wherein Trump thoroughly debases and/or humiliates someone and that someone then publicly begs for more. The most famous example of this, of course, is that of Ted Cruz supporting Trump after the real estate developer implied Cruz’s wife was ugly and that his father was involved in the assassination of JFK, but more instances, sadly, abound.

On Thursday, for example, Congresswoman Nancy Mace filmed a video outside Trump Tower one day after the former president endorsed her opponent and called her “an absolutely terrible candidate.” (The former president seemingly turned on Mace for having the audacity to blame him for the insurrection he, in fact, helped incite.) Was Mace at Trump Tower to further call out Trump for the election lies that helped fuel the violent riot? To bring up his presidential records scandal? Or perhaps she was walking by and simply decided to film herself flipping the bird at his eponymous building? As it turns out, none of the above! Instead, it appears that Mace traveled to New York City with the express purpose of proving her loyalty to a guy who, again, just yesterday called her “an absolutely terrible candidate” and a “disloyal” Republican.

“Hey everyone, Congresswoman Nancy Mace here,” the congresswoman says to the camera. “I’m in front of Trump Tower today, and I remember in 2015 when President Trump announced his run, I was one of his earliest supporters. I actually worked for the campaign in 2016, I worked in seven different states across the country to help get him elected. I supported him again in 2020 because of policies I believed in. He brought American jobs back. He lowered our taxes. Wages and employment were better for every hardworking American in our country.” Mace chose to leave out the part about Trump having “the worst jobs record in modern U.S. history,” but maybe she was pressed for time? Anyway, she continued with the praise.

“He made America safer. He took on China directly. And America was stronger all around the world, and quite frankly freedom and democracy was stronger all around the world. And these are things I still believe in today, policies I believe in and continue to. As a strong fiscal conservative I believe in putting America first. I believe in putting our country back on the path to prosperity. But Nancy Pelosi would love nothing more than to win this seat back in a midterm election cycle. She did it in ’18 and she can do it again this cycle…. If you want a Republican majority to thwart the radical far left D.C. Democrat agenda then we’ve got keep this seat in Republican hands, we’ve got to get a majority back. If you want to lose this seat once again in midterm election cycle to Democrats, then my opponent is more than qualified to do just that. If you want a Republican majority, if you want someone to continue to represent the low country, if you want someone to represent the low country with our fiscally conservative values, then I’m here to serve.”

So yeah, the only way this could get more cringeworthy is if it had featured Mace outside Mar-a-Lago telling a cabana boy that she needed him to get a message to Trump that she was sorry. Perhaps that will come in the next installment.

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