Former President Donald Trump has never been one to hold back his words.
That’s why Twitter banned him. That’s why his supporters love him and his opponents hate him. He calls it like he sees it, directly to the crowd and even straight to the face of other powerful people.
In his latest comments making waves, 45 unloaded at various people he’s sick and tired of during remarks to a crowd of donors at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
He also talked about how the GOP can win in the future.
McConnel is a ‘Dumb Son of a B**ch’
In his remarks, Trump called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a “dumb son of a b**ch” adding that the establishment Republican hadn’t done nearly enough to back him during the second witch hunt impeachment trial against him in February.
Trump also singled out McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao, who served as Transportation Secretary in the Trump Administration. Her family’s Foremost Maritime Inc. has deep links to the Communist Chinese government, but that wasn’t the focus of Trump’s remarks on her. Instead, he said he felt sorry for her being married to McConnell and gave her a job out of sympathy.
In remarks that lasted almost an hour to donors gathered at Mar-a-Lago, Trump went off his prepared speech also saying he’s “disappointed” in former VP Mike Pence and making fun of Dr. Tony Fauci, who’s been wrong about just about every single thing he’s ever said regarding COVID.
According to Trump, Fauci gave him a ton of bad advice, and Trump also mocked how badly Fauci threw the first pitch at the Washington Nationals game last year. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who was in attendance – along with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, among others – also criticized Fauci heavily.
Trump also repeated his belief that the 2020 election was a fraud and was stolen from him to be handed to current President Joe Biden.
So far, despite the headlines being generated, nobody has responded. McConnell’s office didn’t respond. He is still the top Republican in office and it’s clear that this is a kind of showdown between McConnell’s establishment GOP network and Trump’s MAGA brand which seeks to own the narrative on the 2022 midterm elections and decide who gets to run state party leadership in the coming years.
Trump rant on McConnell at RNC was brutal, per attendee. He took credit for Mr. McConnell's margin of win. "Did he ever say thank you to me? No. I hired his wife. Did he ever say thank you to me? No." He said he feels "sorry" for her, said, "She's suffered so greatly."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 11, 2021
Trump vs. McConnell?
Trump and McConnell aren’t only against each other, and a lot of their picks for 2022 are on the same page. But in various other cases they each want someone different. For example, Trump won’t be backing Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska because she voted to impeach him, McConnell and his crowd will.
McConnell has clearly been on Trump’s list for some time and this development should not really surprise any of us, although using profanity definitely shows that the former POTUS is pretty ticked off.
In February Trump called McConnell “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” and he has long felt that the 2020 election was rigged and that McConnell, Pence and others didn’t stand beside him when it counted most.
As the divisions in the GOP continue to grow and Trump continues to gather his allies and have others come to him in the hopes of being the successor to the MAGA brand, look for more fundraising clashes, comments in the media and strong statements.
The former President is not going to take attacks lying down and his philosophy of hitting back twice as hard is clearly still in play here. McConnell and others would do well to restrain their response if they want their candidates to be backed by the MAGA movement.
