Even during Donald Trump’s first term as president, he didn’t exactly have a good relationship with Sen. Mitch McConnell. In fact, in 2017, he looked at the Kentucky Republican as someone who would simply follow the White House’s demands. When the GOP’s then-Senate leader tried to explain how government worked, a “profane shouting match” soon followed.
After Trump’s defeat in the 2020 elections, the relationship deteriorated further: Trump condemned McConnell as a corrupt “hack,” targeted his wife, practically begged GOP senators to oust him from his leadership role, said McConnell “has a DEATH WISH” for disagreeing with Trump’s legislative strategies, and told The New York Times, on the record, that he considered McConnell to be “a piece of s---.”
It seemed unlikely that things could get worse — but the president somehow found a way.
About a month before Trump’s second inaugural, McConnell sent some unsubtle shots across the president’s bow, even drawing parallels between the “America First” slogan and the fascists who used the same phrase in the 1930s.
But nearly a month into the second Trump administration, the Kentuckian — who is not expected to run for re-election next year — has taken on a new and uncharacteristic role as the only GOP senator willing to oppose the White House’s most outlandish Cabinet nominees, voting against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
McConnell’s likely retirement, in other words, has apparently had a liberating effect. Political observers taking stock on Capitol Hill, looking for Republicans who might be a thorn in the White House’s side, tend to focus on members such as Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins. But it’s the former Senate GOP leader who’s positioned himself as the Trump skeptic to watch.
To be sure, there are a couple of ways to look at this. One is to welcome McConnell’s transition as a pleasant change of pace: As too much of the Republican Party becomes a cult of personality, honoring Trump as The One True Leader, it’s nice to see at least one GOP senator willing to take steps that his colleagues are too afraid to take, opposing nominees who obviously don’t deserve to be confirmed.
The other way to see McConnell’s shift is to acknowledge the fact that his sudden independent streak is far too late to matter, and it’s also proven inconsequential as Trump’s worst nominees cleared the Senate anyway. It’s easy to do the right thing in key moments when it doesn’t involve paying a price or making a practical difference.
Relatedly, the longtime senator has had plenty of opportunities to rid his party of Trump, and in each instance, he’s demurred. As my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones recently noted, McConnell has arguably been “among the biggest enablers of Donald Trump’s rise in the Republican Party and American politics.”
Which of these perspectives is correct? By most measures, I’d say both are.
But just as important is the degree to which Trump appears furious, knowing that he no longer has any leverage over McConnell, leading to ugly breakdowns. After the senator rejected RFK Jr.’s ridiculous nomination, the president told reporters that McConnell is “not equipped mentally.”
Reminded that McConnell is a polio survivor, making his vote against Kennedy something of a no-brainer, Trump apparently questioned whether the senator actually had polio.
To the extent that reality still matters, the longtime Republican lawmaker really did have polio — a detail he emphasized in his statement explaining his opposition to Trump’s HHS nominee.
“I’m a survivor of childhood polio,” McConnell’s statement read. “In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.
“Individuals, parents, and families have a right to push for a healthier nation and demand the best possible scientific guidance on preventing and treating illness. But a record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions does not entitle Mr. Kennedy to lead these important efforts. ... Mr. Kennedy failed to prove he is the best possible person to lead America’s largest health agency.”
McConnell was right, of course, though none of his GOP colleagues followed his lead, and for his trouble, he faced a new round of condemnations from his party’s president. They probably weren’t the last.