Daily Beast: “Bristling at his defeat in Georgia, President Donald Trump increasingly believes that Gov. Brian Kemp has not done enough to deliver him a victory or challenge the state’s election results. Now, sources close to the president – and Republicans in Georgia – say it is a foregone conclusion that Trump will help stand up a primary challenger to Kemp when the Republican is up for re-election in 2022. ‘It’s a fait accompli,’ said one veteran Trump political adviser.”

“According to two people who’ve discussed Kemp with the president this month, Trump has largely focused on how Kemp would be ‘nothing’ without him or his endorsement in the 2018 gubernatorial primary. The president has also mentioned that he’s looking forward to fundraising and campaigning against Kemp in Georgia, in the likelihood that a GOP primary challenger emerges. One of the sources said that Trump had privately compared his desire to see Kemp’s political future ruined to how he wanted to see the political implosion of his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, during an attempted comeback this year in Alabama. Kemp’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast. But not everyone allied with the president thought that challenging the governor would be a good idea. ‘It is not wise because if you haven’t learned anything from the Senate race this year, you could at least say that having two strong candidates has nearly cost us the seat,’ said former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA). ‘So I think that Georgia no longer has the luxury of having a divided Republican primary and then going on to win in November.'”