The Reason Trump Just Called This Former Ally A 'Disaster'

Even though ex-President Donald Trump has been out of the White House for the better part of a year, Trump's hold on the Republican party is, by his own design, unrelenting. Trump, who still has yet to officially announce an official bid for the presidency in 2024, has by all appearances done everything to indicate another campaign is certain, including endorsing GOP candidates for the 2022 midterms who, if elected, will do everything to back Trump if he's elected once again. 

But for every politician Trump has publicly backed, there's a bevvy of deemed RINOs (the Trumpian acronym for "Republican in name only"), or those who have defied Trump, like GOP Rep. Liz Cheney. And for each of these, Trump has unfailingly done his best to castigate them by any means possible. Most recently, Trump has once again taken aim at a familiar target: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he once considered a close confidante. So, what has spawned Trump's new round of ire towards McConnell? In some ways, it's more of the same — but this time, with a twist.

According to Newsweek, Donald Trump's latest batch of insults for Mitch McConnell are directly related to the Republican senator's bipartisan efforts to approve an increase for the national debt ceiling — a deal which Trump, by virtue of McConnell compromising with Democrats to begin with, condemned as despicable. Though the deal was designed to avert a national financial default, which Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer deemed potentially "catastrophic," per Reuters, the single act of compromise led Trump to call McConnell a "disaster" of a lawmaker.

"The Dems would have folded completely if Mitch properly played his hand," Trump stated in a message delivered by Liz Harrington, the ex-president's spokesperson (via Newsweek). "He has all the cards to win, but not the 'guts' to play them," he continued. "The Old Crow is a disaster!"

This is hardly the first time Trump has gone after McConnell since the beginning of his post-presidential tenure. In February, Trump called McConnell a "political hack" and insulted members of his family, presumably over McConnell's decision to go against Trump's erroneous claims of election fraud. (However, this didn't stop McConnell from voting for Trump's acquittal in the latter's second impeachment trial, as Newsweek noted.) As of this report, McConnell has not publicly commented on Trump's condemnation.