Post from Truth Social

A Texas slate, posted the evening before Election Day

The post went up at 23:15 UTC on November 2. Daylight saving time ended on November 1, so that is 6:15 PM Eastern. Trump spent the campaign's closing days running tele-rallies from Mar-a-Lago, and this post landed at the end of the business day before polls opened. It belongs to a same-day run of Texas endorsements (Toth, Moran, Buckingham, Huffines, Middleton), and it reuses their modules nearly word for word: "will fight tirelessly," "Cut Taxes and Regulations, Champion School Choice," "American Energy DOMINANCE," "Keep our Border SECURE." The signature "President DONALD J. TRUMP," the bulleted policy list strung into one sentence, and the GOTV link to swampthevoteusa.com all mark it as campaign infrastructure. Trump's typographic habits are there, including the Capitalized Nouns and the all-caps "WIN BIG" and "GET OUT AND VOTE," but in this genre they are part of the house style that staff reproduce. The likeliest reading is a staff draft from a template, possibly approved or lightly touched by Trump, with low odds that he composed it.

The few irregularities fit that reading. "Mutilization" has been a fixed part of his endorsement boilerplate, so it is carried text, not a fresh slip. "Alongside of us" and the comma splice in "if she and the Dumocrats ever got in, all of these things will be terminated" are small, and nothing in the post drifts, breaks off mid-thought, or detours into his own grievances. That rules out using this text for cognitive comparison, since its language belongs to the template more than to him.

Loyalty credentials on one side, a caricature on the other

The post works by splitting the field into two figures. Patrick is defined by loyalty to Trump personally before anything else: "As Texas Chair of our Presidential Campaigns in 2016, 2020, and 2024, Dan has been an incredible friend to our Movement, helping us WIN BIG." His record as lieutenant governor gets no mention. What qualifies him is service to Trump's campaigns, and the closing pledge "HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN" restates loyalty as the core virtue. This is the familiar transactional schema of the endorsement posts, where an endorsement repays a debt, and it also lets Trump stand in Patrick's three wins ("WIN BIG in the Primaries and General Elections").

Goodwin gets the opposite treatment. "Radical Left Dumocrat" combines a label with a coined insult, and the list of positions attributed to her ("massive Tax Increases, Open Borders, Men playing in Women's Sports, and Transgender Mutilization of your Children") is the stock bundle that appears against nearly every Democratic opponent in these posts, whatever office they seek. The triple "Reckless, Radical, and Dangerous!" ends the devaluation. "Your Children" makes the threat personal to the reader, an appeal to fear aimed at parents. The derogation targets her party and her imputed politics. It does not dehumanize her or point toward any action besides voting.

Federal promises pinned on a state race

The attack on Goodwin is built mostly on federal policy. "NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, and NO TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY" are federal tax provisions from the 2025 reconciliation law. Texas has no state income tax, and a lieutenant governor has no vote on any of them. The claim that "all of these things will be terminated" if Goodwin wins gives a state office a power it does not have. It also leaves out that the tips, overtime, and senior deductions are scheduled to expire after 2028 under the law's own terms. "No tax on Social Security" overstates what the law did, which was add a temporary senior deduction. The transgender and sports items describe things Texas already bans by statute, so the post warns of a threat its own state law has already closed off.

This is projection of the national frame onto a local contest: the Democrat stands in for "the Dumocrats" in general. Nationalizing down-ballot races is ordinary campaign rhetoric, and the distortion here serves the strategy rather than coming from any inner need. The phrase "our always under siege Second Amendment" adds an ambient sense of threat with no specific attacker, a mild persecutory note that recurs across the slate.

What the context adds

Press coverage in October described this as Patrick's toughest race yet: Goodwin was badly outspent but even or ahead in some polls. So the endorsement is a turnout push in a contested seat, not routine supply-seeking, and the attack on Goodwin aims to neutralize a real threat before the vote. Nothing in the text points to personal injury. There is no mention of Trump's critics, his approval numbers, or the court rulings from the same week. He appears only as the endorser and as the winner by reflected credit. The archetype is King-as-patron, granting "my Complete and Total Endorsement" to a loyal lieutenant and setting the Warrior frame ("fight tirelessly alongside of us") against an outside enemy. On the order/chaos axis the post promises restoration ("Restore American Energy DOMINANCE," "Keep our Border SECURE") and assigns chaos to the opposing party, with no grievance beyond partisan threat.

Longitudinal value is low on its own. This slate is useful as a measure of how much of the feed is templated campaign output on the eve of an election, since six near-identical endorsements went out within hours.

Fact Verification

The two with votes behind them (sports and gender care for minors):

• Texas House Journal roll calls show Goodwin voted no on SB 14 (2023), which bans puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for transition in minors. She voted no on second reading (Record 1686, 92-48, May 12, 2023) and on final passage (Record 1688, 87-56). During the debate she offered an amendment to study the bill's effect on suicide among trans youth. It failed.
• She voted no on HB 25 (2021), which makes K-12 students compete by sex at birth. On the vote to concur in the Senate amendments (Record 138, 76-61, Oct. 17, 2021) she is listed with the nays.
• She voted no on SB 15 (2023), the same rule for college athletes, both to pass it to third reading (Record 1792) and on final passage (Record 1813, 95-50).
• Her campaign issues page backs equal rights 'regardless of identity' and cites a top Equality Texas rating. The only grade I could confirm from Equality Texas is an A for 2019.
• So she did oppose these restrictions. Trump's wording ('men playing in women's sports', 'transgender mutilization of your children') is loaded. SB 14 mainly covered drugs, and surgery on minors was rare. Opposing a ban is also not the same as campaigning to bring these things back. I found no 2026 campaign statement from her on either topic.

The two without support (taxes and borders):

• Massive tax increases: she said 'I don't want an income tax' and 'we already have enough revenue' (San Antonio Current, Aug. 25, 2026). She called Patrick's income-tax ad a fabrication.
• Her platform raises the homestead exemption to $140,000 ($200,000 for seniors), caps local tax increases, and has the state pay more of school costs to cut property taxes.
• The Journal shows her voting yes on the 2023 property tax relief bill (SB 2, 2nd called session, Record 31, 133-4). She also voted yes on the 2025 homestead exemption bills (SB 4 and SB 23, Records 3116 and 3117, passed with no nays).
• The one thing that partly fits the attack is her 2019 vote against HJR 38, the constitutional ban on a personal income tax (Record 1243, 100-42). That vote doesn't show she wants 'massive tax increases'. Her platform does back a $15 minimum wage, but that is a wage floor, not a tax.
• Open borders: her platform backs comprehensive federal immigration reform 'that addresses border security'. It criticizes state detention and state and local cooperation with federal immigration agents.
• She voted no on SB 4 (2023, 4th called session, Record 48), the state crime of illegal entry. She has also criticized the state's spending on razor-wire buoys in the Rio Grande. Opposing state-level enforcement is not a call for open borders, and I found no statement from her calling for one.

Context: no fact-checker has rated this specific claim. The Patrick campaign's attacks on Goodwin centered on taxes, including AI-generated ads she filed a police complaint over and that were then taken down. Coverage says Patrick rarely raised the trans issues on the trail. A lieutenant governor also couldn't repeal these laws alone.

Verdict: half the list (the sports and gender-care votes) has a real basis, though stated pejoratively. The other half (massive tax increases, open borders) is contradicted by her own statements and votes. |

Overall Veracity: 54%