'He's In A Tough Position': Mitch McConnell's Influence Wanes In Trump's GOP

WASHINGTON — Mitch McConnell is widely known to be a cunning, Machiavellian tactician who maximizes his party’s power in the Senate to accomplish hugely consequential conservative victories, including a right-wing Supreme Court majority that may last for decades.

But the recent drama in Congress’ upper chamber exposed what has been evident behind the scenes for some time now: McConnell’s influence in the GOP has been sharply diminished, and the 81-year-old minority leader who suffered from health problems last year doesn’t hold the same sway in his conference that he once did.

A growing number of conservative senators are in open rebellion with his tactics and heeding instead the words of Donald Trump, the former president McConnell shielded from conviction following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — a fateful decision that the GOP establishment is now reaping. Some are even calling on him to step down as leader, a post that he has held longer than any senator in U.S. history.

The Senate’s Republican conference is more divided than ever and afraid of incurring Trump’s wrath over issues that, just a few years ago, it wholeheartedly embraced: stronger border enforcement and a muscular U.S. foreign policy that challenges autocrats rather than champions them, here and at home.

“The last few months have been just abysmally embarrassing,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a McConnell antagonist, reflected this week. “It’s hard to keep track of leadership positions. It shifts hour by hour.”

McConnell’s push for passage of more U.S. aid to Ukraine, which he has called a vital national security issue, has exposed a deep rift within a party that has trended more and more toward isolationism under Trump. This week, only 16 of the