Mitch McConnell backs Donald Trump for president despite years of acrimony

The endorsement after years of acrimony is part of a longer strategic game played by both parties to try to regain Republican control of the Senate.

Outgoing Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump. Picture: AFP.

Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) endorsed former President Donald Trump in his run for the White House, the product of weeks of negotiations aiming to repair an acrimonious rift between the two leading Republicans heading into November’s elections.

The move came a day after Trump swept almost every race on Super Tuesday, defeating former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in more than a dozen states, putting him just shy of clinching the GOP nomination. Haley dropped out of the race Wednesday, leaving Trump the last person in the GOP contest and clearing the way for a rematch with President Biden, the expected Democratic nominee, in the fall.

“It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States,” McConnell said in a statement Wednesday morning. “It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support.”

In a social media post, Trump said: “Thank you, Mitch. I look forward to working with you and a Republican Senate MAJORITY to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

McConnell, 82 years old, said last week he planned to step down as minority leader at the end of this Congress, touching off a race to succeed him and sparking new questions about the direction of the Republican Party increasingly dominated by Trump. It also put new focus on the question of whether or not McConnell would endorse Trump, as other Republican members of leadership vying to succeed him, including Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas, lined up behind the former president.

When Trump was in the White House, McConnell played a major role in installing conservatives on the Supreme Court and passing major tax cuts in 2017. But later McConnell openly broke with Trump over his efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, and the men have gone years without speaking. Trump has repeatedly called for McConnell to be ousted as leader, and used insulting nicknames for both McConnell and McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served in Trump’s cabinet as secretary of transportation.

McConnell didn’t vote to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, but he said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.” Trump was acquitted by the Senate. McConnell has also blamed Trump’s involvement in some Republican primary contests for weaker-than-expected GOP results in recent elections.

In his statement, McConnell emphasised the Republican wins of the Trump administration. “During his Presidency, we worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary – most importantly, the Supreme Court,” he said.

McConnell’s endorsement was the culmination of a process that started weeks ago, around the time of the Iowa Republican caucus in January. McConnell wanted to open up a line of communication with the Trump camp, said a person familiar with McConnell’s thinking, and McConnell’s political strategist Josh Holmes opened a back channel with Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita.

The goal was to begin sharing information again but also make sure that both teams were aligned with regards to Senate races specifically, so Republicans could avoid a situation similar to 2022, when Trump backed different candidates than McConnell and the party failed to win back control of the Senate.

During weeks of talks, the person said, Holmes and LaCivita established a working relationship and communicated regularly about political strategy, to make sure their bosses were on the same page, especially in states such as Montana and Ohio, where Republicans are eager to avoid damaging GOP primaries ahead of key Senate races.

Trump’s team “clearly want to consolidate the Republican Party, including the donor base,” the person familiar with McConnell’s thinking said.

“Both sides feel pretty good about how it worked out.” Holmes and LaCivita plan to continue talking almost every day, the person said.

But McConnell and Trump still haven’t spoken directly. Their falling out dates to December 2022, when McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor that Biden had won the 2020 election, despite Trump’s false claims that the election had been stolen from him.

Trump has regularly bashed McConnell, calling him an “Old Crow.” McConnell took it in stride, passing out bottles of Old Crow, a Kentucky bourbon, at fundraisers. Trump also insulted Chao, who is Taiwanese-American, by calling her “China-loving” and “Coco Chow.” At the time, McConnell simply observed, “It strikes me that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao, the secretary of transportation.” Chao, who also served in former President George W. Bush’s administration, resigned from Trump’s cabinet in the wake of the Capitol riot.

At his weekly press conference Wednesday, reporters pressed McConnell about how he could reconcile his endorsement with Trump’s personal insults and the fact that McConnell had called Trump responsible for the riot.

McConnell pointed to remarks he made in February 2021, shortly after the attack on the Capitol, when he was asked a similar question. “I said I would support the nominee for president even if it was the former president,” McConnell said. “And he obviously is going to be the nominee of our party.”

Dow Jones