Port: Don't discount the fear factor in Burgum's decision to endorse Trump

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : If Sen. John Hoeven, who endorsed Trump last month after Burgum left the presidential field, needs Trump to sign a bill he got through Congress that benefits North Dakota, is it unreasonable to believe, given all we know about Trump's pettiness and vindictiveness, that he would frustrate Hoeven's efforts, and hurt North Dakotans, out of sheer pique?
57% : At this point, our left-of-center friends may be rolling their eyes, thinking I'm looking to rationalize and justify the support people like Burgum, Hoeven, Sen. Kevin Cramer, and others have laid out for Trump.
42% : MINOT -- Gov. Doug Burgum stood on stage with Donald Trump on Sunday, in Iowa, and endorsed the disgraced former president for a second term in office.
36% : He also won't rankle the feathers of any big-money donors of influencers who are now backing Trump and who might be persuaded to back Burgum in a subsequent campaign.
34% : Fail to deliver to Trump what he wants, which is unified Republican support behind his candidacy, and Trump might become an obstacle to future ambitions.
34% : Withholding support from Trump in this fraught moment in Republican politics is a bad career move.
34% : Trump is not a leader who inspires.
28% : But there is merit in the argument that Trump might be willing to harm North Dakota to get back at North Dakota leaders who don't fall in line.
27% : Trump is a leader who scares.
23% : By endorsing Trump, Burgum inoculates himself against backlash from the populist wing of the NDGOP, which despises him.
22% : But I spent a lot of time on the phone speaking with some prominent North Dakota Republicans and they made a separate point to me: How much harm would Trump do to North Dakota in a second term if North Dakota's Republicans don't fall in line?
20% : Endorsing Trump means (assuming Trump would peacefully leave office, which isn't really an assumption we can make) that he won't be endorsing anyone he'd need to campaign against four years hence.
15% : And while part of their decision to back a man under dozens of criminal indictments, a man who chose to sit down to dinner with a virulent white supremacist, a serial adulterer who has been found civilly liable for rape in a court of law, who once derided veterans as "losers" and "suckers," who mocked former Sen. John McCain's military service, who Burgum once said he wouldn't do business with, may be tied up in political ambition, I do not think we can discount the fear.
1% : If Burgum, had he not endorsed Trump, needed a future Trump administration to sign off on a disaster declaration because of flooding, or a natural disaster, or a drought, would any person who sees what Trump is with clear eyes doubt that he might punish Burgum for his disloyalty by letting North Dakota bleed?

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