Donald Trump sends cease-and-desist letter to PAC claiming he supports Anthony Sabatini

President Donald Trump has demanded a PAC supporting congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini to stop calling him “the Trump choice.”

Attorneys for Trump and his Never Surrender Inc. leadership PAC issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Advance Liberty PAC, which sent out a campaign flyer with photos of Sabatini and Trump on both sides.

Florida Politics independently obtained images of the mailer, which  calls Sabatini “The Trump Choice for Congress,” despite Sabatini never obtaining the President’s endorsement in this congressional campaign or prior ones.

“The mailer’s use of President Trump’s name, image, and likeness grossly mischaracterizes his position regarding the Republican primary election for the U.S. Congress in Florida’s 11th Congressional District,” the letter from Trump attorney Domenic Aulisi reads.

Sabatini, a Lake County Commissioner, announced in April he would run for U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster’s seat in Congress. Notably, Sabatini in 2024 had challenged Webster in a Republican Primary but dropped out after Trump endorsed the incumbent.

While Sabatini was once a prominent booster of Trump, he has been more critical of him this year, regularly attacking Trump’s immigration and foreign policy from the right. He called current deportation rates “a failure” and routinely called to “end the war in Iran.” Meanwhile, he has aligned himself with Republican opponents of Trump such as U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, who just lost a GOP Primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate.

The letter also cites some of Sabatini’s most provocative tweets, including saying Trump was inviting a “a migrant invasion from Venezuela” and claiming the President had become “very out of touch right now.”

“It strains credulity that a candidate who so openly attacks President Trump’s administration would ever be President Trump’s ‘choice,’” the cease-and-desist letter reads.

“In short, this mailer uses President Trump’s name, image, and likeness in a deceptive manner that is inconsistent with the fact that President Trump has not endorsed another candidate in this race and cannot be squared with Mr. Sabatini’s public and baseless attacks on President Trump.”

Sabatini did not respond to a request for comment.