Haley Stevens endorses Mike Rogers. Trump now has “great respect for her.”

Saturday, Haley Stevens was a Democrat who “tried to do it, but she can’t.” Sunday, she endorsed Mike Rogers. By the time Air Force One landed in Dubuque, she was brave.

Stevens, who lost the August primary to Abdul El-Sayed, backed the Republican after El-Sayed’s campaign asked her to stay away over an outside ad she called antisemitic, per AP and NBC. Trump opened the gaggle with it: “a smart thing to do because El-Sayed would destroy our country. So I thought that was fantastic.” His outreach plan: call her, thank her and tell her “she did the right thing.” Would she make a good Republican? “I’d love to have her.”

Then the warm part. Mike Johnson said Stevens and her fiancé had been getting threats. Trump took it from there, calling El-Sayed a jihadist and “a Muslim Brotherhood guy,” offering no evidence. “I think she was very brave doing it,” he said. “I don’t know her. I’ve never met her, but I have great respect for her.”

Great respect, a day after “a good, solid pretty Democrat, I think.” Never met her, but he has the margins: “She was supposed to lose by like 25 points, and she ended up losing by half a point.” His numbers.