The New York businessman host of two MAGA podcasts told RedState how he deked Ohio Republican House hopeful Craig Riedel into opening up about his hostility to President Donald J. Trump—the shocking tape that has the establishment scrambling.

“I'm on a bunch of donor lists. I do a lot of conservative podcasting. I get involved in some campaigns, have attended a lot of fundraising events, and he called me," he said. Alan Jacoby owns the Patriot Cigar Company and hosts “MAGA Mornings” and “America First Live.”

Jacoby, a former New York City first responder, said Riedel was relentless with texts and phone calls.

“I told him I supported J.R. Majeski last cycle, and I like him,” the cigar entrepreneur said. 

“He would send me text messages,” he said. “It was basically the same text message, wanting to just get in touch with me because he wanted a donation.”

In the conversation that Jacoby recorded, Riedel is heard telling him about Trump: “He's a different person than me. I don't like the way he communicates. I think he is arrogant. I don't like the way he calls people names. I just don't think that's very becoming of a president.”

Hey @craig_riedel, here's our entire conversation. You are a NEVER TRUMPER.

We need @JRMajewski in Congress. He is the TRUE America First Candidate that supports @realDonaldTrump and deserves his endorsement. @Jim_Jordan @EliseStefanik @TeamTrump @mattgaetz @charliekirk11… pic.twitter.com/BGfOvPRMW8

— Alan Jacoby 🇺🇸 (@AJacoby1776) December 9, 2023

In the fallout from the Riedel audio, Rep. Max Miller (R.-Ohio) and his father-in-law and 2024 Ohio GOP Senate hopeful Bernie Moreno withdrew their endorsements of Riedel.

🚨New: Ohio Businessman Bernie Moreno has pulled his endorsement from Craig Reidel in Ohio 9th Congressional District following his Anti-Trump comments and has given a max donation to JR Majewski instead. pic.twitter.com/VKY5GzMTBg

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) December 9, 2023

In the 2022 GOP Primary for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, Majewski won the nomination to face Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur for the district that stretches from the midway point between Cleveland and Toledo and extends west to include “the Glass City” all the way to the Indiana line. In that primary, the Air Force veteran beat Riedel, the former Nucor Steel engineer, with 36 percent to 31 percent. 

Jacoby said Majewski told him he wanted to run for the seat again, but he held off because of his mother's health, which meant he was free to support the former state representative. 

Although Majewski was out of the race, Jacoby reached out to him anyway, and after several conversations—and the two men attending a showing of the Jim Caviezel film “Song of Freedom” at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster—Majewski agreed to get back in the race. 

Jacoby, whose father was best friends with Howard Stern, growing up on Long Island in Roosevelt, New York, said Riedel did not do any research on him and or his political leanings, but he asked around about Riedel, and he was told that the engineer did not support Trump, so when that mid-June call came, he decided to put him to the test—because by then, Majewski was back in the race. 

“I was speaking to a few people who are other donors and things, and Craig Riedel’s name came up because they know how I am with MAGA and Donald Trump and that this guy hates Donald Trump,” he said.

“I had this mission in my head that I wanted to find people running for office, national office, Congress, Senate, who are keeping quiet about Donald Trump completely because, well, they hate him,” he said. 

“I sent him a text message: 'Hey Craig, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you. Can we set up a call?’ Immediately, he texted me back, and we set it up for the next day,” he said.

When the candidate called, Jacoby said he set the bait. “I made it seem like, listen, me and my wife are moving away from the MAGA movement. We're supporting people that are not going to pray at the altar of MAGA."

Jacoby laid out the situation:

Her and I have been doing some talking, and I'll be completely candid with you and honest with you. We have come to this; I don't know if you call it an epiphany or a conclusion that we want to take a different direction, and we often will donate to out-of-state Republicans. I am just going to come out. I'm taking a different direction, and I am hoping a lot of people do the same. I'll call it the MAGA movement. I'm not going to completely trash it, but I voted for Donald Trump twice, and I am not going to vote for him. Again, me and the wife just want to support people that are not going to, I guess, pray the altar of MAGA. We're on the hunt, Craig. We're on the hunt because there are people that are just taking the knee, and I'm done with the whole taking the knee thing. The narrative has changed, in my opinion.

Then, he armed the trap: “I'm just going to come out and ask with everything that the whole scenario of what's unfolding right now in this country and in politics, where do you stand on Donald Trump in politics?”

Riedel replied that he was also through with Trump:

Donald Trump was, when he was president, his policies were incredible. I support his policies, but he and I are two different people altogether. I deliver, and I'm not going to take the need. I will never take the knee to anybody. I will never take a knee to Donald Trump.

Jacoby pressed him to confirm that he would not seek Trump’s endorsement.

Riedel replied: “Yep, yep, exactly right.”

After Jacoby posted the audio, which was amplified in conservative media, Riedel X-posted a statement: "It's very simple…I endorse Donald Trump for president."

The steel industry engineer then blamed Rep. Matt Gaetz (R.-Fla.) for his troubles.

“Matt Gaetz and the social media trickster pulled a stunt yesterday to try to convince President Trump to get involved in my congressional primary for proven loser JR Majewski,” he said.

I am endorsing President Donald J. Trump. #OH9 pic.twitter.com/10Ees3dZG4

— Craig Riedel (@craig_riedel) December 8, 2023

Jacoby said neither Gaetz nor Majewski were part of his op.

Majewski lost to Kaptur by 13 points after an Associated Press article accused the veteran of stolen valor, challenging whether he had actually qualified as a combat veteran or whether he was ever in Afghanistan. 

RedState Editor-at-large Ben Kew reported on how Majewski was the victim of a Democratic op in his piece: "Air Force Confirms Military Records of Two More GOP Candidates Were Leaked to Democratic Firm."

After the election, the Air Force corrected Majewski's record to reflect his overseas service, and a retired Air Force master sergeant came forward to vouch that he met Majewski, who was an airman stationed at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar when the airman was crewing aircraft in Afghanistan.

Please check out my @oann report with a retired Air Force master sergeant, who worked with @JRMajewski in Afghanistan. I am counting on @CoryMillsFL @RepDonBacon @nrcc @RepMarkAlford @RepDonBacon @GOPMajorityWhip @RepRichHudson@RepRonnyJackson to care about the truth. pic.twitter.com/CvnIoXZ3Z7

— ReporterMcCabe (@NeilWMcCabe2) December 15, 2023

Majewski told RedState in the 2022 campaign, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.) and the National Republican Congressional Committee cut off his funding and abandoned him after the AP story dropped.

“Yeah, and I think that that's why, I mean, locally here, I don't think that the stolen valor thing was, it didn't catch traction,” he said. 

“What caught traction is that the establishment Republicans used that as the basis to defund my campaign, and so moderate Republicans who liked me thought, well, he must be lying because Kevin McCarthy took money from him and left him out to dry.”

Majewski said the Republican consultants and staffers working on his campaign told him to invest in yard signs and literature while the GOP would come in at the end to fund the television advertising. 

That TV money would have put him over the top, he said. “It was a million bucks. It was basically my entire allotment from the NRCC.

Jacoby said he does not feel sorry about setting Riedel up because he was a state representative for six years, and when you are running for Congress, you know that guy to whom you are trashing Trump hosts a "MAGA Mornings" podcast.

“He went on, like a complete moron, because I made it clear that we were looking to give a max donation,” he said. 

“I mean, would Google me and just see what I'm all about,” he said. 

“Why wouldn't you do your due diligence?" he asked.

“I trapped him. It is what it is. I was not; I wasn't going to do it anonymously because it would've meant nothing.”