After the confirmation votes, Trump’s offensive against McConnell becomes more ugly

Even during Donald Trump’s first mandate as president, he did not have exactly a good relationship with Senator Mitch McConnell. In fact, in 2017, he looked at the Kentucky Republican as someone who would simply follow the demands of the White House. When the leader of the headquarters of the Republican party tried to explain how the government worked, a “”Profane shouting“Soon he continued.

After Trump’s defeat in the 2020 elections, the relationship deteriorated even more: Trump condemned McConnell Like a corrupt “hack” addressed His wifepractically begged Republican senators To expel it of his leadership role, saying McConnell “has a desire for death” for disagreeing with Trump’s legislative strategies, and said The New York Times, in the registry, which considered that McConnell was “a piece of s —“.

It seemed unlikely that things could get worse, but the president somehow found a way.

Approximately a month before Trump’s second inaugural, McConnell sent Some subtle shots On the other side of the president’s arch, even Drawing parallels between the slogan “America First” and the fascists who used the same phrase in the 1930s.

But almost a month after the second administration of Trump, the Kentuckian, which is not expected to run for re -election next year, has assumed a new and little characteristic role such as the only The Republican senator willing to oppose the most extravagant cabinet nominees of the White House, voting against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The probable retirement of McConnell, in other words, has apparently had a liberating effect. Political observers who take stock in Capitol Hill, who are looking for Republicans who could be a thorn on the White House side, tend to focus on members such as Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and Susan Collins de Maine. But it is the former leader of the Senate Republican Party who positioned himself as Trump’s skeptic to see.

Without a doubt, there are a couple of ways of seeing this. One of them is to welcome McConnell’s transition as a pleasant change of rhythm: since too much of the Republican party becomes a cult of personality, honoring Trump as the only leader, it is good to see at least one republican senator willing to take measures that their colleagues are too afraid to take, nominated opposite that obviously did not deserve to be confirmed.

The other way of seeing the change of McConnell is to recognize the fact that his sudden independent streak is too late to import, and it is also demonstrated that Trump’s worst nominated cleared the Senate anyway. It is easy to do the right thing at key moments in which it does not imply paying a price or making a practical difference.

Related, the senator for a long time has had many opportunities to fight his Trump party, and in each case, he has finished. Like my msnbc colleague Ja’han Jones recently noticedMcConnell could be “among the greatest facilitators of Donald Trump’s rise in the Republican Party and American politics.”

Which of these perspectives is correct? According to most measures, I would say they are both.

But just as important is the degree to which Trump seems furious, knowing that he no longer has any influence on McConnell, which leads to ugly collapses. After the senator rejected the ridiculous Nomination of RFK Jr., the president told journalists that McConnell is “not mentally equipped. “

He recalled that McConnell is a polio survivor, making his vote against Kennedy as obvious, Apparently, Trump questioned if the senator really had polio.