Kasich has been busy making the case that Republicans should be wary of following Trump’s lead. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the Aug. 7 election in Ohio’s heavily Republican 12th Congressional District was a reaction to the “chaos” he says voters see in Trump’s Washington, from the president’s conduct to Trump’s hard-line stances on trade and immigration.<doc-sep>(CNN) — If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a GIF worth? For Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a GIF can clearly tell its own story. The Republican, who is an outspoken Trump critic, dismissed a Twitter attack from President Donald Trump on Monday by simply tweeting a GIF of Russian President Vladimir Putin laughing. “The very unpopular Governor of Ohio (and failed presidential candidate) @JohnKasich hurt Troy Balderson’s recent win by tamping down enthusiasm for an otherwise great candidate,” Trump wrote Monday. “Even Kasich’s Lt. Governor lost Gov. race because of his unpopularity. Credit to Troy on the BIG WIN!” Trump was referring to Kasich’s delayed support of Troy Balderson in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District race, which created an awkward tension especially since Balderson was tying himself to Trump. Kasich, who ran against Trump in 2016, is consistently named as a potential Republican alternative to Trump. He hasn’t ruled out a presidential run in 2020. Earlier this year, Kasich called out Trump following his news conference with Putin during the Helsinki Summit. Trump garnered backlash after he declined to endorse the US government’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. “This is really terrible…we don’t like this talk. Nobody likes this talk,” Kasich told CNN’s Chris Cuomo in July. “Where was his staff? … Why didn’t somebody step up and say ‘this is not the way to do things?’” CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Hate to say it, but it appears our president may have tweeted inaccurate information Monday morning. In a little breather from his morning assault on Omarosa Manigault-Newman, President Trump offered the following commentary on the narrow result in last week’s Ohio special election. The very unpopular Governor of Ohio (and failed presidential candidate) @JohnKasich hurt Troy Balderson’s recent win by tamping down enthusiasm for an otherwise great candidate. Even Kasich’s Lt. Governor lost Gov. race because of his unpopularity. Credit to Troy on the BIG WIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ohio governor, who hasn’t ruled out a primary challenge to the president, responded with a GIF of Russian President Vladimir Putin laughing. Advertisement Heh? Eh. What Trump meant to tweet was that he saw Kasich on the Sunday shows and didn’t appreciate what he heard. In a Meet the Press interview, Kasich—who had endorsed Balderson in a widely played ad—said that in spite of the (apparent) Republican win, it “wasn’t a good night, because this is a district that you should be winning by, you know, overwhelming numbers.” The close margin was “a message from the voters to the Republicans that you’ve got to stop the chaos and you’ve got to get more in tune and stop alienating people and try to figure out how do families do better.” Advertisement That interpretation did not support Trump’s interpretation that he had personally carried Balderson to a “great victory.” Instead, the president took it as a personal slight, and responded with these attacks on Kasich. They don’t really add up. Advertisement First, Kasich is not “very unpopular.” There hasn’t been much polling of his job approval this year, but it’s good. Failed presidential candidate, though, is absolutely correct. But what about the assertion of Kasich “tamping down enthusiasm”? Another way to look at the situation would be that Trump failed to build enthusiasm among his voters. The more rural counties in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District that broke the strongest for Balderson also had the poorest turnout. In Democrat Danny O’Connor’s strongest county in the district—Franklin—he won 97 percent of the votes that the Democratic candidate won in the district in 2016. In Balderson’s strongest county by margin, though, he won just 42 percent of the votes that ex-Rep. Pat Tiberi received in 2016. In his home county of Muskinghum, it was 48 percent. Overall turnout in the Franklin County portion of this district was 59 percent of what it was in the 2016 general election. Morrow was 46 percent, while Muskingham was 51 percent. So what went wrong here? Could it be that Republicans in rural counties didn’t turn out because they were sick of seeing John Kasich’s face on television, or because Trump, with his visit to the district, failed to turn them out—but did mobilize Democrats to turn out against him? Maybe neither is an adequate explanation and there are structural factors at play. But the latter is more likely. And that’s the story behind one of Trump’s tweets on Monday morning!<doc-sep>
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) responded to a Twitter attack from President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE on Monday with a GIF of Russian President Vladimir Putin laughing. Trump went after his former Republican presidential primary opponent earlier in the morning, accusing Kasich of "tamping down enthusiasm" for Republican House candidate Troy Balderson. “The very unpopular Governor of Ohio (and failed presidential candidate) @JohnKasich hurt Troy Balderson’s recent win by tamping down enthusiasm for an otherwise great candidate,” Trump tweeted. “Even Kasich’s Lt. Governor lost Gov. race because of his unpopularity. Credit to Troy on the BIG WIN!” The very unpopular Governor of Ohio (and failed presidential candidate) @JohnKasich hurt Troy Balderson’s recent win by tamping down enthusiasm for an otherwise great candidate. Even Kasich’s Lt. Governor lost Gov. race because of his unpopularity. Credit to Troy on the BIG WIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018 ADVERTISEMENT Kasich endorsed Balderson over Democrat Danny O’Connor before the special election and the Republican holds a narrow lead for the state's reliably red 12th District seat. Kasich’s reply was a chuckling Putin. Kasich said Sunday that the hotly contested race should serve as a message that the GOP needs to “stop the chaos.” "What you had is a, I think, a message from the voters to the Republicans that you've got to stop the chaos and you've got to get more in tune and stop alienating people," Kasich said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The two-term governor, who ran against Trump in the 2016 GOP primary, has become an outspoken critic of the president. He said on Sunday that he hasn’t ruled out a 2020 presidential run. A Quinnipiac University poll from June found that Kasich has a 52 percent job approval rating in the state, compared to a 36 percent disapproval rating. Trump frequently takes to Twitter to label special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerSenate Democrats urge Garland not to fight court order to release Trump obstruction memo Why a special counsel is guaranteed if Biden chooses Yates, Cuomo or Jones as AG Barr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel MORE's investigation into Russia's election meddling and possible ties between the president's campaign and Moscow as a "hoax."