“Michael Whatley is so Great! Running against a really bad former Governor who set murderers free to kill again, and was grossly incompetent on the big hurricane cleanup. I had to get it done when I took office on January 20th, and I did! I hope the Great people of North Carolina remember how BAD Roy Cooper was as Governor, especially on crime. Michael Whatley will be a FANTASTIC Senator. He led the Republican Party to VICTORY in 2024. Michael will be a GREAT SENATOR, one of the very best!” posted convicted felon President Trump at 7:50 AM EDT Monday, the reaffirmation of support for an utterly generic and low name-ID loyalist that seemed apropos of not much at the time.

That is until the Daily Beast reported that it came just about 20 minutes after they called the White House to ask for comment on the former North Carolina GOP and then RNC chair Whatley’s connections to convicted sex offender Harvey West, who Whatley repeatedly backed for various leadership positions within the Tar Heel State’s Republican Party. West, 54 and a former cop, did six years for statutorily raping two aged 14 and one aged 16, in 1999 when he was 28, and only last week resigned from his post as chairman of the state GOP’s 1st Congressional District Committee after reports of his record resurfaced – as did a long trail of Whatley’s public support for him.

This of course is all happening while Whatley tries to paint his presumptive November opponent, Dem former Gov Roy Cooper, as personally responsible for this or that Willie Horton-type situation, starting with last summer’s horrific murder of Ukrainian refugee Irinia Zarutska on the Charlotte streetcar system by a mentally ill maniac whose release from prison Cooper had nothing to do with.

The low-wattage Whatley’s “War Room” Twitter account even made it a weekly thing:

🚨🚨 MUGSHOT MONDAY 🚨🚨

This is Rafael Martinez, he recently shot a 26-year-old in a downtown Wilmington parking deck.

This is the result of Roy Cooper encouraging Joe Biden's border crisis and forcing sanctuary policies on to North Carolina. pic.twitter.com/7yDxZO5Wtj

— Whatley War Room (@whatleywarroom) March 16, 2026

They might want to step it up. Michele Woodhouse, who lost the 2022 11th District primary to dickhead now-Congressman Chuck Edwards, tells the Beast she’s “been warning Michael Whatley about [West] since he was the North Carolina GOP chair. I think it affects, now that Michael’s on the ballot, it affects his race and every down-ballot Republican. They’re all at risk now.”