Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton speaks during a MAGA Majority Force block walking event in San Antonio. Credit: X / Paxton War Room

President Donald Trump went to bat for fellow Republican Ken Paxton on Wednesday, but not before taking a few vicious swings at the U.S. Senate candidate’s clothes, appearance and TV presence.

Trump’s backhanded compliment, if you can even call it that, came during a meeting with GOP congressional candidates in Washington, D.C. Although Paxton wasn’t there, the Texas attorney general and his turbulent Senate campaign appeared to be on Trump’s mind.

“Ken Paxton, you might not like the way he dresses,” Trump said. “And I say this, it’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not … like the way he looks. You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews. But he was the best attorney general in the country. He was one of the best in the entire country. And that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great.”

Trump’s not the only one who’s taken aim at Paxton’s choice of attire lately.

Last week, Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, mocked him for flashing a $41,600 Hublot watch, an ill-fitting golf polo from the Four Seasons Orlando and shoes that appeared a couple of sizes too big during a San Antonio block walk.

“Nothing says you understand the affordability crisis like wearing a $41,000 watch and a Four Seasons polo,” Talarico tweeted in response to clips of Paxton in his finery.

Trump’s lukewarm praise for scandal-tarred Paxton comes as Republican operatives, including former Bush administration senior advisor Karl Rove, raise alarms about the possibility of a Talarico victory, which would give Dems their first statewide win in Texas since 1994.

“[Paxton] was in Washington the week before the Fourth of July, on that weekend. No fundraiser that I can find,” Rove told Fox News on Wednesday. “And then on Tuesday, he was seen leaving for Iceland with his latest girlfriend, and then the two of them spent the Fourth of July celebrating in London, England … . If he wanted to go to London, he should have gone to London, Texas.”

Rove continued: “If the president wants to have Paxton win, he needs to be tossing a lot of money Paxton’s way.”

To that point, Talarico has out-fundraised Paxton 3-to-1, their latest campaign finance reports show. t

Although Trump has said he’ll help pour millions into Paxton’s campaign, that pledge has yet to materialize. At the same time, Team Talarico has been spending freely on TV ads, last week dropping its first attack ad against Paxton.

RealClearPolitics’ average polling shows Talarico leading Paxton by 2.4 points with just two months before the Nov. 3 election.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...