McConnell backs Trump — mildly

Mitch McConnell is endorsing Donald Trump for president, a move that the Senate GOP leader made after Trump’s only main rival dropped out of the GOP primary.

Despite their nonexistent relationships over the past three years, McConnell has always maintained he would support the eventual Republican nominee — and Nikki Haley’s Wednesday suspension of her campaign unlocked McConnell’s formal endorsement. His decision to formally back Trump amounts to a detente, however involuntary, after a rocky three years between the two men.

It also illustrates that the two men may still need each other politically: McConnell is trying to take back the Senate majority for Republicans at the end of the year, while Trump is trying to win many of the same battleground states that are contested in the battle for the chamber.

“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. “It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support.”

McConnell did not speak to Trump for three years after the former president tried to overturn his 2020 loss, and Trump sought to oust McConnell as GOP leader after the 2022 midterms. The two did not speak directly about the endorsement, which was negotiated by McConnell adviser Josh Holmes and Trump adviser Chris LaCivita, according to a person familiar with the matter.

McConnell announced last week that he would step down as GOP leader at the end of the current Congress but serve out the rest of his term as Kentucky senator. That means, if Trump wins the presidency in November, the job of steering Senate Republicans alongside the former president will fall to a new leader.

In his statement endorsing Trump, McConnell mentioned only what he sees as the highlights of their four years in office together, “including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary — most importantly, the Supreme Court.”

McConnell’s move to deny former President Barack Obama a Supreme Court seat is credited by many conservatives with boosting Trump’s 2016 campaign. And their work together did flip the high court to what most see as a 6-3 conservative majority.

Still, after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, McConnell made no secret of his dim view of Trump’s conduct, judging him “practically and morally responsible” for the violent attack by the former president’s supporters. McConnell and most Senate Republicans voted to acquit Trump at his second impeachment trial, with McConnell arguing that the Senate could not convict a former president but also declaring that “former presidents are not immune from being held accountable” by the legal system.

Publicly, McConnell seems to only be looking forward as he tries to flip the Senate into Republican hands. He said on Wednesday that looks “forward to the opportunity of switching from playing defense against the terrible policies the Biden administration has pursued to a sustained offense geared towards making a real difference in improving the lives of the American people.”

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