Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are destroying each other and it’s a beautiful thing
Weeks ago, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell had a profane shouting match over the phone which seemed to mark the end of any cooperative stance they might have had going. Now we’re beginning to see just how far these two men, who have basically spent their careers destroying the lives of other people, are willing to go in the name of destroying each other.
Trump blamed McConnell for the failure of TrumpCare at a time when Trump needed a win, and the ongoing nature of the Russia investigation which threatens to take Trump down. In response, Trump informally endorsed an extremist primary challenger to McConnell’s ally, Republican Senator Jeff Flake. In return, McConnell let it leak that he doesn’t know if Trump will get to finish his term, which was essentially a subtle impeachment threat. Then yesterday, Trump took a big swing at McConnell in response.
Without warning or explanation, Trump handed a major victory to the Democrats in Congress by backing their plan for the debt ceiling. He didn’t even ask for anything in return. In so doing, Trump made himself look weak and cowering, while emboldening the Democrats to demand even more in future negotiations. But Trump didn’t seem to care about that, because this was all about screwing McConnell.
Donald Trump has placed the Republican Congress in a position of having to take ownership of the debt ceiling three months from now, instead of being able to kick the can down the road past the midterm elections like they wanted to do. Trump probably just cost his own party a few seats in Congress, and he appears to have done it simply to get revenge on Mitch McConnell. Now we wait to see what McConnell does in retaliation. These two men are going to destroy each other in real time.
