A notable critic of President-elect Donald Trump appears to be gearing up to oppose key parts of the incoming administration’s foreign policy agenda despite America First’s electoral mandate.
Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell is going on offense against the president-elect’s foreign policy worldview, calling on Trump to reject America First’s right’s so-called “flirtation with isolation and decline” in an essay published in Foreign Affairs on Monday. The former Senate Republican leader is also urging the administration to embrace many foreign policy positions that Trump notably rejected during the campaign, including issuing support for additional foreign aid and free trade agreements, solidarity with NATO and more weapons transfers to Ukraine. (RELATED: Seven GOP Senators Most Likely To Stand Between Trump And His Dream Cabinet)
“The [Trump] administration will face calls from within the Republican Party to give up on American primacy,” McConnell wrote in Foreign Affairs. “It must reject them. To pretend that the United States can focus on just one threat at a time, that its credibility is divisible, or that it can afford to shrug off faraway chaos as irrelevant is to ignore its global interests and its adversaries’ global designs. America will not be made great again by those who simply want to manage its decline.”
“The response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation,” McConnell added.
McConnell’s remarks advocating for an interventionist foreign policy reminiscent of the George W. Bush administration and a larger defense budget to deter multiple adversaries raises questions over how far the Kentucky Republican is willing to go in opposing the president-elect’s nominees and agenda.
“We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War Two,” McConnell told the Financial Times in an interview published on Dec. 11. “Even the slogan is the same. ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.”
The former Senate Republican leader appears to be most at odds with Trump over the Ukraine issue. McConnell claims that the Trump administration’s deterrence of Chinese aggression cannot be achieved without preventing a Russian victory in Ukraine.
“Standing up to China will require Trump to reject the myopic advice that he prioritize that challenge by abandoning Ukraine,” McConnell wrote in Foreign Affairs. “A Russian victory would not only damage the United States’ interest in European security and increase U.S. military requirements in Europe; it would also compound the threats from China, Iran, and North Korea.”
Trump has promised to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine War and has criticized President Joe Biden’s decision to escalate tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the final months of his presidency.
“It’s crazy what’s taking place. It’s crazy. I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Trump told TIME during his 2024 person of the year interview on Thursday. “Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons. And I think that’s a very big mistake.”
McConnell’s critique of Trump’s foreign policy record and worldview follows the president-elect’s decisive electoral victory against Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which marked the first time a Republican candidate won the so-called popular vote since 2004. (RELATED: ‘America Unleashed MAGA’: Reince Priebus Shuts Down Donna Brazile’s Claim About Trump’s Cabinet Picks)
McConnell was reportedly one of the four senators who tanked former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’ bid to serve as Trump’s attorney general and has yet to meet with Pete Hegseth or Tulsi Gabbard.
Though McConnell has stepped down from Senate GOP leadership, he has pledged to spend the remainder of his time in the Senate pushing back against Trump’s foreign policy worldview. The Kentucky Republican will be the incoming chair of the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee, giving the former Senate Republican leader a high profile to advocate for a larger defense budget and additional military aid for Ukraine.
“Members of my own party now contend that, somehow, the stability of markets and the deterrence of adversaries are achievable without tending to the requirements of American hard power,” McConnell said during a keynote speech at an American Enterprise Institute event that celebrated the Kentucky senator’s foreign policy views on Nov. 12. “Confronting this particular challenge is where I now place my focus. Shoring up American primacy, combatting the dangerous tendency toward isolationism, and urgently restoring America’s hard power: this is how I will spend a great deal of the time I have left in public life.”
McConnell is up for reelection in 2026 and has not commented on whether he plans to seek an eighth term.
The Trump-Vance transition team did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment on McConnell’s criticisms of the president-elect’s foreign policy views and attacks on the America First movement.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="33330 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=33330">16 Comments
Having a hard time believing anyone would give a john deere fuck about anything that corrupt fossil says. Just leave now and live out your last few years in disgrace you demented Chinese tool.
The turtle just needs to go away!
Joe’s twin brother.
Watch Collins fall in line with McConnell, she really does not like Trump supporters, Trump, America First either.
Please define a mandate.
This man’s leadership has failed, been poor and should be held accountable
We need to pray for Mitch McConnell 🙏
Pray the next time he falls it leads directly to a brain bleed!! Way, way, way past his time to leave. Traitor Collins too! Not enough the huge wins in every category for Trump. This wrinkled up old hag votes her personal preference regardless of what we the people voted for. If she got a primary challenge from a can of dog food I’d vote for the dog food!
Sick to death of this Democrat spank posing as a Republican. She’s a disgrace ! What happened to the 2term pledge! Liar
Swamp creature of the worst kind. In laws are Chinese shipping magnates.
Go away Mitch .We don’t want you around anymore .
YOU are part of the problem not the solution .
Time for you to go .
Sort of related…. Has anyone here ever received a reply to a constituent contact with Susan Collins? I contacted Collins about allowing Donald Trump to assemble the cabinet and top tier positions shortly after the 2024 election. I received an instant auto response acknowledgement but nothing in the ensuing weeks. I contacted her office again last week asking about the failure to communicate issue, and predictably nothing. I did a quick online search for the number of staff positions Collins utilizes and came up with nothing helpful, but the point is shouldn’t constituent contacts be responded to? I’ve always conducted myself courteously but feel I must be blacklisted by Collins.
If they have to wheel him out of the capitol building now, who is the aide that is writing this stuff and who is controlling him/her? Like Biden, McConnell cant find his butt with two hands…
mitch just leave now you traitor, tromp has a mandate to fill
McConnell & Collins are prime examples of the kleptocrats ruining America!
Of course China Mitch is against America First. How else is his wife and in-laws going to get richer? If D.C. investigations weren’t such a waste of time and money, I would suggest this POS be investigated to the 10th degree and probably tried of treason.
Captured.
Leave get out.