Trump lashes out at Mitch McConnell with statement in desperate bid for relevancy
During the disastrous four years that Donald Trump was president, “infrastructure week” became a running joke among Washington politicos and the political media at large. It seemed like every other week saw a press release announcing infrastructure week, the promise of something big, really big that they were working on, it was going to be tremendous and nothing like this country’s ever seen, we’re gonna bring the jobs back, many people were saying it couldn’t be done but he was going to do it, can you believe it folks?
But nothing ever came from infrastructure week, largely due to Donald Trump’s complete lack of interest in pushing through any legislation or doing anything that resembled “work” at all. However, now that President Biden is on the verge of passing a historic infrastructure bill that both Democrats and Republicans agree our nation desperately needs, Trump is growing salty at the thought of his successor accomplishing one of the things that he promised but failed to deliver.
On Tuesday, Trump threw a tantrum about the infrastructure bill and released a statement aimed at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, trashing him as the most “overrated” man in politics:
“Nobody will ever understand why Mitch McConnell allowed this non-infrastructure bill to be passed. He has given up all of his leverage for the big whopper of a bill that will follow. I have quietly said for years that Mitch McConnell is the most overrated man in politics—now I don’t have to be quiet anymore. He is working so hard to give Biden a victory, now they’ll go for the big one, including the biggest tax increases in the history of our Country.”
Trump has been railing against Mitch McConnell for some time now, displeased that the powerful Senator refused to publicly back his stolen-election conspiracies or use any of his influence to help Trump stay in power. The fact that he used the term “overrated” to try and insult McConnell, possibly the most influential and successful Senator in American history, shows that he still just doesn’t get it.
Trump is incapable of looking at the world in any way that doesn’t center himself as the end-all-be-all of anything and everything. While Republicans succeeded in gutting it to the bone, there is no denying that what’s left is desperately needed for a nation whose infrastructure has been neglected for decades, and at the end of the day it is better to get off your high horse, make harsh compromises, and get something done that delivers tangible results to the American people — something Trump failed to do over and over again.
But even worse — for all the talk about how Trump is still the “leader of the Republican Party,” the fact that all his whining and complaining had precisely 0 impact on the Senate negotiations proves that when it actually comes down to it, his power and his influence within the Republican Party is not nearly as strong as he deludes himself to be, and to a narcissist like Trump, that is an uncomfortable revelation indeed.
Original reporting by Mychael Schnell at the Hill.
