Seven months into Donald Trump’s presidency, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is finally thinking what we all knew months ago: Donald Trump isn’t capable of being a good president.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that the relationship between Donald Trump and the Republican Senate Majority Leader has disintegrated, apparently beyond the point of repair. The two have openly said they still plan to work together, but leaks have shown that their negotiations and conversations end in screaming matches and the pair have apparently decided that they are ideologically opposed.
It has taken McConnell months to reach this point. It also took Trump specifically targeting him for him to decide that Trump’s habit of turning on Republicans is probably divisive for the party.
Some might be tempted to congratulate McConnell for now making an effort, albeit behind-the-scenes, to fight back against Trump’s bombastic, antagonistic, stupid and aggressive tactics, but the truth is the high-ranking Republican had been burying his head in the sand about the President problem until Trump threatened McConnell’s career specifically and his interest in skin care alley.
Anyone who was anti-Trump in November could have told you exactly why they were anti-Trump, and the reasons mostly centered around the fact that Trump is bombastic, antagonistic, stupid and aggressive. McConnell may have been aware that Trump wasn’t the best choice for the role in November, but he and other top Republicans were cowardly and short-sighted.
In November, and in the months before the election, Republicans had a real chance to stop this Trump train before it got to this point. They could have fought harder to educate citizens on the consequences of Trump’s policy, fought more to defend and support moderate conservatives, done more to push back against the highly aggressive and dangerous ultra-conservative bloc forming in their ranks.
But they didn’t. They thought, “Let’s consider this a win and work with it,” despite the fact that everyone could see the immediate dangers Donald Trump posed to the country. In their blind ambition they failed to admit that they have a massive problem, not a path to success, on their hands.
And now it’s August. Republicans have failed to push forth any significant policy but will continue to try. They negotiate with their ultra-conservative half rather than their moderate half. They stand by Trump when he criticizes anti-fascists for fighting back against Nazis. Republicans like Mike Pence, Ryan and McConnell have been Trump’s enablers up to this point.
Taking any stance against him now will be too little, too late. Trump is on the Republican party’s hands, as is the consequences of his presidency. It’s difficult to imagine a future in which the GOP can move past this.