Top senator Mitch McConnell endorses Trump for president despite acrimony

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, endorsed Donald Trump for president despite years of acrimony including Trump calling McConnell a “piece of shit” and attacking his wife in racist terms, and McConnell deeming Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the January 6 insurrection.

“It is abundantly clear that Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for president of the United States,” McConnell, 82, told the Washington Post on Wednesday, after Trump dominated the Super Tuesday primaries and his last rival, Nikki Haley, dropped out.

“It should come as no surprise,” McConnell said, “that as nominee, [Trump] will have my support. During his presidency, we worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary – most importantly, the supreme court.”

In the words of the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the 2017 tax law McConnell referred to was “skewed to the rich, expensive, and failed to deliver … promised economic benefits”.

In the case of the courts, McConnell did stock the federal bench with rightwingers and steer three justices onto the supreme court, appointments made possible by ruthless tactics and paving the way for policy victories including the removal of the federal right to abortion.

That ruling, however, has powered Democrats to victories in campaigns centered on rightwing threats to reproductive rights.

McConnell and Trump ultimately fell out over Trump’s refusal to admit defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, culminating in the deadly attack on Congress of 6 January 2021 – the event which prompted McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao,