Top Republican Strategist Laughs Off Trump's Threat

Republican strategist Jeff Roe and his team at Axiom Strategies are laughing off Donald Trump's efforts to punish them for working on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign.

Trump and his inner circle were advising down-ballot GOP candidates against hiring strategists at Roe's political consulting company as retribution for the seasoned GOP operative's disloyalty to him, according to a Thursday report from Politico.

But Roe is laughing off the former president's threat. He told Newsweek, "Ha. I'm all good. So are the employees you are emailing. We are getting a kick out of it on our text chain, though."

Roe was a top strategist for a DeSantis $269 million super PAC called Never Back Down until mid-December, when he resigned after The Washington Post published an extensive story about tensions between NBD and DeSantis' campaign team. Roe's departure was yet another blow to DeSantis, who saw several firings and resignations from the PAC's senior staffers in the weeks leading up to Roe's announcement.

Trump celebrated after Roe left the PAC last month, writing on Truth Social, "Jeff Roe is out — GAME OVER for DeSanctimonious."

Axiom, which Roe founded in 2005, is the largest GOP political consulting company in the nation. The company has nearly 400 employees and is working to help elect almost 500 GOP candidates this cycle, including 100 House candidates and almost a dozen for the Senate.

Several of Axiom's top strategists did not respond to Newsweek's request for further comment.

An "influential Republican strategist" who was granted anonymity by Politico told the publication it was an "open secret" that Republicans who "want to stay on President Trump's good side should not hire Axiom."

"They are enemy No. 1," the source said about Roe and his team.

Trump is known to keep score on who has supported him while punishing those he sees as being disloyal to him. But Roe had not always been on the former president's bad side.

In a 2019 Q&A with Politico, Roe commended Trump for "creating generational change" during the first half of his presidency. He credited the then-president with "building a coalition of not only Republicans, but lower-income and middle-class Democrats who are finding a new home in a mainstream party."

"They are being left behind by coastal elite liberals—and now even socialists—who share no commonality with their plight," Roe said. "My personal favorite of this presidency is his constant attack against political correctness and the growth of the nanny state."

Roe, who helped Glenn Youngkin flip Virginia's governorship red in 2021, traveled to Trump's Florida estate shortly after the Republican victory to meet with the former president, who was reportedly considering Roe for his 2024 presidential campaign. However, Trump was advised not to and Roe went on to work for DeSantis in March 2023.

Trump called Roe out by name on Truth Social in June, writing, "Has [DeSantis'] campaign manager, Jeff Roe, exhausted his war chest yet? Loyalty, something you don't see much of in politics, has turned out to be more important than most people would have thought!"

In response, Roe tweeted a screenshot of Trump's remarks and replied, "It's ok to be scared..."

Roe, who has been referred to as "the next Karl Rove," ran Senator Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign, which beat Trump in that year's Iowa caucuses. He also worked on former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential bid and former Texas Governor Rick Perry's 2012 presidential campaign.