Former President and 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump had a question.

Since CNN reported that North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson posted on a pornography website that he was a “black Nazi” who supported the re-legalization of slavery, and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. “Martin Lucifer Koon Trump and his campaign have begun trying to gently distance the ex-president from his staunch MAGA ally, fearing that Robinson’s extreme excesses could harm Trump himself.

As the former president discussed with aides and confidants in recent days what to do in light of the Robinson fallout, Trump also posed a blunt question to those in his political and social circle, according to a source close to Trump and one another person who is familiar with the subject.

He wanted to know if Robinson was mentally ill.

Earlier, Trump warmly greeted the Tar Heel State’s Republican gubernatorial candidate and, in a statement that seems particularly odd in retrospect, called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

But Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are entering the final weeks of this year’s exceptionally high-stakes presidential contest, with various battleground states and national polls pointing to a close race that is likely to go to the margins in a few states. For both camps, nothing can be taken for granted and every inch of improvement or scandal seems to be of great importance.

Recent polling data gives the Harris campaign cause for cautious optimism in its tough battle to beat Trump in North Carolina’s electoral votes. For Trump, the state is a must to win: Trump’s top advisers have said it repeatedly Rolling Stone that they see virtually no plausible scenario in which he wins the election without keeps North Carolina in its corner. Earlier this month, Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), told reporters: “It’s very hard for us to win if we can’t win North Carolina.”

It is unusual for a gubernatorial candidate to have a dramatic impact on the electoral prospects of a party’s presidential nominee, especially one as popular among the party’s base as Trump. Still, Robinson — who tried to dismiss CNN’s article as “tabloid trash” — is a uniquely messy case.

Influential allies of the former president and his campaign’s senior staff are certainly not ignoring his potential impact on November’s election.

When the CNN story broke last week, several Trump lieutenants began messaging or calling well-placed political contacts in North Carolina to ask if there were any more embarrassing rumors or rumors of additional explosive information about Robinson which Team Trump may not yet know This could come to light during this election cycle, say two sources familiar with the matter.

Earlier this week, at least one major conservative organization was working to conduct a new private poll in North Carolina — largely to find out whether Robinson is dragging down Trump’s numbers, according to another person familiar with the matter.

“This idiot could…ruin the whole thing for us,” complained a Republican close to Trump and actively working to get him back into the White House Rolling Stone. This person added that despite believing the ex-president will win North Carolina, “Black Hitler isn’t making it any damn easier!”

In what remains a stubbornly close presidential race, the former president is running not just to revive his career and political legacy or to implement an increasingly authoritarian, revenge-obsessed political vision. In many ways, Trump is trying to avoid going to prison.

And for Republican lawmakers and other Trump associates who want to restore Trump to power next year, a key task will be figuring out how to assert forcefully and publicly accurately that Trump has nothing to do with the man, with whom Trump was dating, a lot to do.

“This is literally the Democratic campaign in North Carolina trying to make people believe that Donald Trump is somehow involved with the Robinson guy,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a prominent Trump ally, on Fox News on Monday. “Donald Trump knew nothing about it. I didn’t know anything about it. (Democrats) are trying to make themselves guilty by association.”

At a recent rally in North Carolina, Trump conspicuously didn’t even mention the lieutenant governor’s name. According to Trump advisers, there have been some internal discussions within the campaign about whether the former president should make a forceful statement about Robinson – but so far there is no confirmed plan to do so or to withdraw his support.

Others close to Trump have urged him to ditch Robinson altogether, but the ex-president isn’t heeding the advice, instead opting for the strategy of ignoring him, at least for now.

Vance, for his part, refused to commit one way or the other when asked whether he trusted Robinson’s claims that he did not post the comments reported by CNN. “I don’t believe him, I don’t believe him,” Vance said over the weekend.

At a rally in North Carolina on Monday, Vance said: “There is a sex scandal in North Carolina between the lieutenant governor and the people of North Carolina. They will make their decision and we support them.”

Nevertheless, even before the CNN story, Robinson was a demonstratively right-wing extremist figure that much of the Republican elite could not only tolerate but support.

“I think you’re better than Martin Luther King,” Trump said of Robinson at a campaign rally in March. “I think you’re Martin Luther King times two.”

Not quite.