Former Republican President Donald Trump lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell over Congress' recent passage of a spending bill that will keep the federal government running until September 2023.
Both chambers of Congress last week approved the nearly $1.7 trillion bill, which averted a government shutdown before the holiday recess. The legislation was particularly controversial among conservatives because though it includes $858 billion for defense funding and $772 billion for non-defense domestic programs, it included $45 billion in aid for Ukraine.
The bill had bipartisan support and McConnell himself was among the 18 Senate Republicans who voted in favor of it. McConnell said in a statement to reporters last week that Republicans "would have handled the appropriations process differently" if they had control of the chamber but defended these votes "given the reality of where we stand today."
But in a post on his troubled social media platform Truth Social, Trump insisted the "Marxist Democrats must have something really big on" McConnell for him to support the bill, writing:
"The Marxist Democrats must have something really big on Mitch McConnell in order to get him and some of his friendly 'Republican' Senators to pass the horrendous 'All Democrat, All the Way' OMINOUS Bill."
After declaring that the bill "gives Border Security to other countries" and "ZERO" funds to the United States" while funding the Department of Justice (DOJ) that he blames for not backing his false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 general election, Trump proceeded to denigrate McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao.
Trump hurled a racist insult at Chao, who is Chinese, when he wrote:
"It is also a massive giveaway & capitulation to CHINA, making COCO CHOW so happy!"
You can see Trump's message below.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Trump has held a grudge against Chao for some time.
Chao served as Trump's Secretary of Transportation until she became one of the first members of his cabinet to resign following the January 6 insurrection, the day a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the nation's seat of government on the false premise the 2020 election had been stolen.
This is at least the second time in the last couple of months that Trump has attacked Chao, writing last month that McConnell "blew the Midterms, and everyone despises him and his otherwise lovely wife, Coco Chow!"
That remark came after the "red wave" Republican legislators and pollsters had anticipated failed to materialize and once Democrats officially secured control of the Senate after their candidates and Nevada and Arizona fended off Trump-backed candidates.
At the time, Trump called the lack of a "red wave" the "fault" of McConnell, whom he accused of "Spending money to defeat great Republican candidates" instead of supporting candidates like Arizona's Blake Masters, a conspiracy theorist backed by German-American billionaire Peter Thiel, who has made substantial donations to American right-wing figures and causes.
But Trump didn't stop his attacks on McConnell there.
He followed up his latest rant with another post saying that had "Old Crow" McConnell "waited just 10 days, the Republican Majority in the House could have made the 'Ominous' Bill MUCH, MUCH, MUCH BETTER."
He added:
"Just another win for the Democrats, Mitch, that wouldn't have happened if 'Trump' were President!"
You can see that post below.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Trump's latest attack has prompted his own supporters to lash out at McConnell as well, further exposing the depths of the schism within the GOP.
Trump has ramped up his attacks against the GOP at a time when reports indicate that dissension is growing within the ranks of the Republican Party, whose members have urged senior leadership to break from Trump following the GOP's disappointing midterm election performance.
McConnell has criticized the former President more than once and indicated he is looking to move on to ensuring Republicans regain their majority in the Senate after experiencing significant setbacks under the Trump administration.
The relationship between Trump and McConnell has been largely strained since McConnell acknowledged Democratic President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 general election even as Trump mounted a failed campaign to overturn the election results that culminated in the Capitol riot.
According to New York Times journalists Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns—who interviewed the Kentucky Republican for their book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for American Democracy—McConnell was "exhilarated" by the potential damage the insurrection would inflict on Trump.
McConnell felt “exhilarated by the fact that this fellow finally, totally discredited himself,” according to the book. The exchange was reported by multiple news outlets ahead of the book’s publication earlier this year.
