Ann Coulter rages against Greg Abbott for Trump endorsement

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter is lashing out at Texas Governor Gregg Abbott for endorsing former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

Abbott, a Republican, endorsed the ex-president while he was campaigning in the Lone Star State on Sunday. Appearing alongside Trump at a Thanksgiving luncheon for Texas state patrol officers, Abbott argued that the former president returning to the White House would “restore law and order in the United States of America” and “restore world peace.”

Hours after the endorsement, Coulter slammed the governor in a post to X, formerly Twitter. She referred to Abbott as “the science illiterate governor who kept Texans in masks for about a decade,” referring to Abbott enacting a temporary mask mandate during the COVID pandemic.

Coulter also recalled that Abbott had endorsed Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, writing in an additional post that she was “amazed it wasn’t Jeb [Bush]-exclamation point.”

Newsweek reached out for comment to Abbott’s office via email on Monday.

Despite Coulter arguing that Abbott was “science illiterate” for at one time endorsing masks, decades of scientific research and medical practice have shown that masks are effective in reducing the spread of diseases including COVID. Abbott also banned mask and vaccine mandates in his state in July 2021.

Coulter’s disapproval of Abbott’s Trump endorsement may be due in part to her status as an outspoken supporter of the ex-president’s 2024 GOP presidential primary rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. She was previously an early and dedicated supporter of Trump, authoring the book In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! in 2016.

“Actually, DeSantis supporters are mostly people who supported Trump in 2015, not the 2016 crowd, who jumped aboard only after it was clear he had the nomination,” Coulter wrote in an X post last week. “We’re ‘Former Trumpers,’ not ‘Never Trumpers.'”

Actually, DeSantis supporters are mostly people who supported Trump in 2015, not the 2016 crowd, who jumped aboard only after it was clear he had the nomination.

We’re “Former Trumpers,” not “Never Trumpers.” https://t.co/PuzKhUnL40

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) November 16, 2023

Coulter has had a dramatic falling out with Trump over the years, becoming one of his fiercest Republican critics. In August, Coulter described the former president as “a gigantic baby” who “can barely speak English,” while also praising DeSantis ahead of the first 2024 GOP primary debate, in which Trump declined to participate.

Trump has also fired shots in the escalating war of words with Coulter, calling her a “wacky nut job” when her criticism of his failure to complete a U.S.-Mexico border wall was ramping up in 2019. In September, Trump referred to Coulter as a “stone cold loser” and “unbearably crazy.”

Coulter responded to Trump’s recent comments with a fiery post on X, claiming that the ex-president had “begged” to reconcile with her at a meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“Trump begged me to come to Bedminster this week, I said only if I could record a substack with him, but the GIGANTIC P**** is too afraid of me, so instead he did this,” Coulter wrote.