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Donald J. Trump and Mitch McConnell haven’t spoken a word to each other since December 2020.
But three people familiar with both teams say people close to the two men have put any animosity between them behind them and that the highest-ranking Republican supporter ever has been critical of the former president. It is said that they are working behind the scenes to create a path for support. ” A perspective that was not empowered to discuss the situation publicly.
If that were to happen, McConnell’s support for Trump would have great symbolic value for the former president, giving him the last stand of Republican establishment, but his rejection would be the last unconquered part of the march. The party’s 2024 presidential candidate.
The support of Mr. McConnell, a Republican senator from Kentucky and the chamber’s minority leader, has appealed to the entire donor base and Republican elites resisting Trump, even as he puts off the party’s likely nominee. It would also be of great value in sending a signal that it’s okay. their anxiety. This is no small feat considering that Trump has already been forced to spend more than $50 million on legal fees, and that pro-Trump groups are expected to significantly outspend their spending due to President Biden’s operation. That’s not the point.
The secret conversations between the Trump and McConnell campaigns took place between key advisers to the two men, who have known and worked together for more than 20 years: Trump’s top campaign adviser Chris Lacivita and confidant Josh Holmes. It has been. He is also Mr. McConnell’s longtime political strategist.
Since around the time of last month’s Iowa caucuses, Mr. Lacivita and Mr. Holmes have been making more concerted efforts to exchange information, particularly regarding Mr. Trump’s support in the Senate, and to forge a path toward a more productive working relationship. started.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell were aware of this back channel between the two camps. By late January, Mr. Trump had told those close to him that he expected Mr. McConnell to support him.
McConnell has always said he supports Republican candidates, even when asked specifically about Trump, whom he said was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States. I’ve said it. Houses of Parliament. But when his support will materialize is up for debate.
Trump faces his first criminal trial in late March and wants to rally factions of his party and their donor base behind him as quickly as possible. That will be long before the nomination is finalized at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
Asked about their private conversations, Stephen Chan, Trump’s communications director, said in a statement to the New York Times: “President Trump is the presumptive nominee and the entire party is working with him to defeat Crooked Joe Biden. It’s time to unite in support of the.” Between Mr. Lacivita and Mr. Holmes.
Chan added that “campaign leaders have had many conversations, but only with people who are actually willing to fight for America First and take back the White House.”
Doug Andres, a spokesman for Mr. McConnell, declined to comment.
Trump, who defeated Nikki Haley in his home state of South Carolina on Saturday, passed all primary voting states by a comfortable margin, and polls show him leading in more than a dozen Super Tuesdays. There is.
He already has the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson, and on Sunday he received an endorsement from South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican leader in the Senate, on McConnell’s behalf.
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, the Senate Republican campaign leader, has privately encouraged both sides to move toward reconciliation, two people familiar with his involvement said. did. Asked about this, Daines said in his statement: “I encourage the Republican Party to unite behind President Trump.” We will all need to work together to win the Senate and defeat Joe Biden in November. ”
Since the new year, both Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell have sought to avoid field battles. It’s been a long time since Mr. Trump degraded Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, as “Coco Chow,” or Mr. McConnell’s “China-loving wife.” Taiwan-born Chao, who served as transportation secretary in the Trump administration, resigned the following day, calling the attack on the Capitol “a traumatic and completely avoidable event.”
When Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked Trump directly about McConnell at a town hall last week, Trump criticized the Senate minority leader, a mild criticism by Trump’s standards. did.
“He’ll probably end up supporting me. I don’t know if I’ll be able to work with him,” Trump told Ingraham. “He gave away trillions of dollars that we didn’t need. He made it so much easier for Democrats.”
To the average ear, to an average politician, that would amount to a scathing attack. But compared to the kinds of statements Trump has made about McConnell in the past, including regular comparisons to feces, these comments are being interpreted by McConnell’s allies as pulling punches. It was done.
Still, Mr. McConnell has watched in recent weeks as the bipartisan immigration bill he championed died and Mr. Trump lashed out at the members of Congress who helped kill it. Funding Ukraine to fight Russia has been a particularly important priority for Mr. McConnell, who sees it as part of his legacy and who is willing to close the funding after an earlier bill failed. was used to push through a national security spending package. But the episode further exposed the raw nerves that exist between Mr. McConnell and some of his colleagues.
The relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell has never been warm, and probably never will be. The two men despise each other, and Mr. McConnell was appalled by Mr. Trump’s rise in 2016. But Mr. McConnell put aside his own disdain for Mr. Trump and worked with him to pass the bill, even if it was not practical, during Mr. Trump’s presidency. Confirm massive tax cuts and a record number of federal judges. Mr. McConnell’s crowning achievement was working with Mr. Trump to reform the Supreme Court, confirming three conservative justices who have achieved long-held Republican goals such as overturning Roe v. Wade.
The tragic and deadly aftermath of the 2020 election shattered whatever existed in their relationship.
McConnell blamed former President Trump’s destructive actions in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and his defeat in two key Senate races in Georgia, placing Trump in a dangerous position of responsibility. came to be regarded as a person. He told those close to him that he never expected to speak to Trump again. And he told senators that he seriously considered voting to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, but ultimately decided against it.
On February 13, 2021, in a speech on the Senate floor to explain his decision not to convict on constitutional grounds, McConnell laid out what amounts to his own indictment against Trump.
“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting at the will and direction of the president,” he said.
McConnell said that day that he believed the criminal justice system was a more appropriate forum to hold Trump accountable for his actions leading up to Jan. 6, saying Trump “remains accountable for everything he did while in office.” “I am indebted to him,” he said. office. ” Read today, that statement seems like the fabrication of a political party that no longer exists.
Two weeks after that speech, in late February 2021, McConnell predicted on Fox News that the 2024 presidential election cycle would be “very close.” When interviewer Bret Baier asked if he would support Trump if he returned to seek the Republican nomination, McConnell, who at the time considered Trump a problem in the past, replied: Who are the party’s candidates? absolutely. “
In 2021 and into 2022, every time McConnell is asked a private question about Trump, he says that, like Liz Cheney, the best way to deal with the former president is to ignore him rather than attack him head-on. He assured the audience. .
According to McConnell, that was not only a convenient answer, but also a politically necessary answer. Trump remained the most popular Republican in the country. And while McConnell primarily wanted Trump gone, he knew his political survival depended on staying on the good side of the party’s angry MAGA base. Oversaw meetings of senators. The public’s respect for Trump became the price they paid for keeping their jobs.
In recent months, as it became clear that Trump was likely to win the Republican nomination for a third time, McConnell said he would do whatever it took to unify the party and regain the Senate majority. promised.
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