President Donald J. Trump delivered a decisive endorsement last week in the Republican primary for New York’s 21st Congressional District, throwing his full-throated endorsement behind Anthony Constantino — a battle-tested America First entrepreneur, job creator, and unapologetic MAGA fighter. Trump highlighted Constantino’s loyalty, his defiant 200-foot pro-Trump sign that withstood legal harassment, and his enthusiastic support from myself and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The message was crystal clear: Constantino is the fighter needed to replace Elise Stefanik and advance the America First agenda.
Robert Smullen, a state Assemblyman anointed by the establishment for the seat, responded with venom. Instead of accepting the will of the movement’s leader, Smullen sneered that “a consultant got to the president,” referring to none other than Roger Stone. Not only was Smullen insulting the presidents closest friend, Roger Stone, but he was deriding the President by insinuating that Trump’s endorsement could be bought or manipulated. Smullen essentially branded Donald Trump as corrupt and showed how little he thinks of the President’s judgment. This is breathtaking arrogance and disloyalty from a man who calls himself a Republican in the age when President Trump is the Party’s beachhead. President Trump does not auction influence. He rewards genuine loyalty and results. Smullen’s ugly smear reveals him as a bitter, entitled insider who lashes out when the base rejects his mediocrity. It is rank betrayal, plain and simple.
Smullen’s own record demonstrates a man steeped in sleaze and unworthy to bear the MAGA mantle. In 2018, he was arrested on a first-degree felony charge for filing false veteran tax-exemption paperwork. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was able to avoid real consequences for his actions, but the episode exposed his penchant for manipulating the rules for personal gain. His wife piled on by joining a lawsuit against the Fulton County GOP, alleging election fraud and campaign finance violations. Then came the consultant grift: Smullen has funneled roughly $75,000 from his Assembly committee into high-priced federal-tier GOP operatives to propel his congressional ambitions. FEC and New York State Board of Elections complaints are pending. Yet this shady operator has the gall to criticize Constantino for investing his own resources in the race to demonstrate he can’t be bought. The hypocrisy is staggering.
Smullen’s fundraising boasts are outright lies. Smullen has bragged about hauling in $500,000. Actual records show a pathetic $13,122.46. He is attempting to con the voters on the money he has raised as well as his MAGA bonafides. When it comes to Donald Trump, Smullen’s loyalty is nonexistent. He issued zero public endorsements for President Trump in 2016, 2020, or 2024. He never donned the MAGA hat. There was never any visible support or risk taken. Yet he cynically brands himself a “Trump Appointee” based on a minor White House Fellowships commission seat. Real Trump supporters endured impeachments, lawfare, assassination attempts, and media onslaughts. Smullen played it safe in Albany, hedging his bets like every other careerist and hoping nobody would notice.
His record as an assemblyman is a catalog of conservative betrayal. Smullen voted YES on the Adult Survivors Act — the very statute E. Jean Carroll exploited in her politically timed lawsuit against President Trump. He supported creating an Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice, expanding Minority and Women-Owned Business set-asides, and funding a Transgender and Gender Non-Binary Wellness Program. He backed mandatory LGBT training for home health aides, the creation of a Chief Sustainability Officer to expand the climate bureaucracy, decriminalizing prostitution loitering, and replacing “councilman” with the woke “council member.” He even voted NO on requiring warrants to search electronic devices, weakening Fourth Amendment protections when government surveillance is already out of control.
These votes explain why the radical NYSUT teachers union, which opposes school choice, parental rights, and fiscal sanity, happily endorsed him. Smullen is their man because he is comfortable with identity politics, bureaucratic bloat, and cultural erosion. While Smullen was rubber-stamping woke initiatives and cozying up to unions, Anthony Constantino was out in the private sector building businesses, creating jobs, and boldly displaying Trump support that put him in legal trouble. But Constantino never backed down even when it could have hurt his successful business. Constantino just kept throwing punches. Meanwhile, Smullen folds and then complains when real leaders get recognized.
The New York GOP establishment — Chairman Ed Cox and a dozen county committees, including the reprehensible Jerry Kassar and the Conservative Party sell outs — predictably lined up behind Smullen. They want a compliant insider who knows how to work the system, not a disruptive outsider aligned with Trump’s base. Smullen refuses to rule out running in November regardless of the primary outcome. He is apparently willing to cost the Republicans a much-needed House seat out of extreme pettiness. That is disqualifying in and of itself. Pair it with his other indiscretions and you have the resume of a world-class scumbag.
Robert Smullen embodies the worst kind of slimy career politician. He attacks President Trump’s judgment the moment it threatens his self-serving ambitions. He misuses committee funds while lying about his own totals. He dodges full accountability for felony-adjacent misconduct. He votes like a Democrat on every major cultural issue. He wraps himself in Trump’s name only when convenient and stabs the MAGA movement in the back when it is convenient. He is the epitome of everything MAGA voters have rejected: malicious, two-faced, and devoid of the fire needed to drain the Washington D.C. swamp.
New York’s 21st District faces serious challenges — border security, inflation, energy costs, and cultural decline. It needs a proven fighter, not this weak-kneed opportunist. Anthony Constantino has earned Trump’s endorsement through tangible loyalty and action. Smullen has earned nothing but contempt through grift, betrayal, and establishment deal-making. On June 24, Republican primary voters must deliver a decisive rejection. Dump Robert Smullen. He is completely, utterly wrong for this district — an establishment relic who puts himself above the America First movement that saved the Republican Party. The North Country deserves strength, not sleaze. It deserves loyalty, not lip service. It deserves victory, not another Albany insider.
The choice is clear. Reject the fraud. Choose the fighter.
