An atomic bomb landed in the suburbs north of Phoenix today when former President Donald J. Trump endorsed Republican Congressional candidate Abraham Hamadeh.

The seat, made open by the surprise resignation of Debbie Lesko, has set off a frenzy among Republican hopefuls, with announced candidates including Hamadeh, former US Senate candidate Blake Masters, state senator Anthony Kern, and current Arizona house speaker Ben Toma.

While all candidates have announced several local and even national endorsers—Toma enjoys the support of outgoing Lesko—there’s really only one endorsement that matters in a contested GOP primary and Hamadeh just scored it.

Writing on his TruthSocial account, the 45^th president predicted Hamadeh will be “a true WARRIOR in Congress, and always put America First!” He later names some Republican turf the candidates value in citing “why I am giving Abe Hamadeh my Complete and Total Endorsement.” Careful students of Trump semaphore will recognize the capital letters and exclamation points as a particularly sincere expression of support, rather than staff-written boilerplate.

Hamadeh replied on Twitter by thanking the president and pledging “I can’t wait to fight alongside you to restore the America we love.”

Any candidate in a Republican primary who fails to win Trump’s approval faces long odds, but one would have to think the Blake Masters campaign suffers from this development more than the others. Blake fought hard to win Trump’s support in his 2022 race, and he got it. But some Republican insiders feel that Masters, who lost to Sen. Kelly by over 125,000 votes went soft when his statewide running mates — Hamadeh, who was running for Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake — contested the much narrower margins by which they fell short.

This time around, it’s been widely reported that Trump personally discouraged Masters from seeking the nomination to challenge Kyrsten Sinema, with the New York Times writing that Trump told Masters “he didn’t think Mr. Masters could win a primary race against Kari Lake.” Lake was one of Hamadeh’s earliest endorsers and with Trump on board, they would presumably present a united front next November if they all prevail in their respective primaries. For Hamadeh, today’s news just made that a lot more likely.