Trump has no plans to withdraw his support for Mark Robinson after the scandal of the alleged pornographic site

Donald Trump is facing calls from both allies and his own campaign to withdraw support for scandal-plagued North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, according to four people familiar with the discussions.

However, there are no plans for the former president to formally step down as of yet.

On Thursday, CNN reported that Robinson, now the state’s lieutenant governor, posted a series of offensive comments on the message board of a pornography website called “Nude Africa,” in which he referred to himself as a “black Nazi!” said he enjoyed watching “tranny” pornography and revealed that when he was 14, he would spy on women in public showers at gyms. The comments were allegedly posted between 2008 and 2012, before Robinson was lieutenant governor.

In a statement, the Trump campaign did not directly address the underlying reports about Robinson, whom the former president endorsed in March and has called “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving the country,” said Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “North Carolina is a vital part of that plan. We are confident that when voters compare Trump’s record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border and safe streets to the failure of Biden-Harris, President Trump will win the Tarheel State once again.”

On Friday morning, he told NBC News that reports that Trump is considering withdrawing that endorsement are “false.”

There are groups of advisers within the Trump campaign who have been quietly urging him to withdraw his support for Robinson, but so far those requests have fallen on deaf ears, according to a campaign official who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak about the matter freely.

Additionally, Republican members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation, including Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who is from North Carolina, planned to privately urge Trump to withdraw his support for Robinson, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

Asked for comment for this article, Budd’s office sent a statement it released Thursday in which the senator called the alleged comments “disgusting.”

“Mark Robinson says they were not his. He has to prove that to the voters,” Budd said.

A spokesman for Tillis did not respond to a request for comment.

A person close to the Trump campaign who has been involved in discussions about Robinson said Trump has been going back and forth on the matter and has been in close contact with Whatley, who also did not respond to a request for comment.

But if Trump does end up withdrawing his support, it would be a departure from what he has done in the past. He rarely retracts his endorsements publicly because he has always believed that doing so would make him look weak, which partly explains why he is unlikely to formally withdraw his support for Robinson.

“The problem is that while he may think it might be a smart move (and I don’t know if he does), there’s no way he’s going to risk the base, which will be furious,” said a former senior Trump official.

The person said Trump could try to address the issue not by withdrawing his support but instead by issuing a statement “disavowing the actions.”

Robinson will not attend a Trump rally planned for Saturday in Wilmington, North Carolina, even though she has attended previous Trump events in the state in the past, according to a person familiar with the event planning.

As buzz began to build Thursday afternoon before CNN published its story, Robinson posted a video ahead of the news, claiming that the words the network was preparing to report were not his.

“You know my words, you know my character, and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race. Clarence Thomas once said he was the victim of a high-tech lynching. Well, it seems Mark Robinson is, too,” she said, comparing herself to the Supreme Court justice, who faced an allegation of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings in 1991.

The CNN story broke on the final day a candidate could withdraw from the race, meaning that while the scandal is likely to escalate, Robinson will remain the Republican nominee for governor in the key state.

“Robinson could hurt Trump, but it’s too late for him to let himself go now, and if Trump was going to intervene, he should have done so before the clock struck 12 last night,” said one veteran Senate Republican strategist. “The ads are going to be brutal.”

The Republican Governors Association, which has only two competitive races this election cycle, including Robinson’s, did not respond to requests for comment.

The political fallout from Robinson’s earlier comments could be particularly harsh for Trump because of North Carolina’s importance as one of roughly seven key swing states on the presidential map.

According to the most recent polls, Trump is statistically tied with Vice President Kamala Harris in the state, at about 48%. That outpaces Robinson, who has been in the 40s in polls against Democrat Josh Stein, who has held a consistent lead in the race.

Even before Robinson’s alleged comments on a debate forum were revealed, he was widely seen as a loser in his own race and a potential liability for Trump because of past controversial comments. He has called same-sex marriage “evil,” said women who get abortions are “not responsible enough to not take off their skirts” and mocked victims of school shootings.

Robinson has also been critical of the transgender community. His past comments faced renewed scrutiny after Thursday’s report, which included comments Robinson allegedly made on the pornographic message board that he likes to “watch transgender porn with girls.”

Robinson has called for transgender women to be arrested for using the bathroom.

“If you’re a man on Friday night and all of a sudden on Saturday you feel like a woman and you want to go to the women’s bathroom at the mall, you’re going to be arrested, or whatever we have to do to you,” he said in February.

Robinson is not the only controversial candidate Trump has endorsed.

In 2017, Trump endorsed the failed Alabama Senate bid of Roy Moore, who had been accused of sexual misconduct with girls.

During the 2022 midterm elections, Trump endorsed North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s failed re-election bid after the freshman lawmaker became embroiled in several scandals, including bringing a loaded gun to an airport, coming under surveillance by ethics watchdogs over suspicions of possible insider trading related to a meme cryptocurrency, and calling Ukraine’s president a “thug” amid Russia’s invasion, among other things.

Trump also endorsed Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker in 2022, even after a report that the staunchly anti-abortion candidate had paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009.