
McConnell evolves from GOP leader to Senate wild card
McConnell has been largely sidelined from important leadership-level discussions since he stepped down as Senate Republican leader at the end of 2024 after a record-setting 18 years in the post, say Senate colleagues.
But the crafty veteran senator has used high-profile dissenting votes and carefully timed statements to make his influence felt throughout the Senate GOP conference and to signal when he thinks Trump — and by extension, Trump's allies in Congress — are moving in the wrong direction.
In doing so, he's using his leverage to preserve the values of the traditional GOP establishment in Washington.
McConnell this week voted against two critical procedural motions to advance a proposal to claw back $9 billion in funding Congress had already appropriated, legislation that was a top priority of Trump and Russell Vought, Trump's controversial leader of the White House budget office.
McConnell joined moderate Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), in voting to block the bill from coming to the floor. And he did so with no public warning, playing his cards close to the vest and leaving his colleagues guessing about what he would do.
He also voted with Collins and Murkowski for an amendment sponsored by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) to shrink the size of the rescissions package by exempting $496 million for international disaster relief from the cuts. It failed 49 to 50 on an otherwise party-line vote.
McConnell threw colleagues another curveball when he voted 'aye' on final passage of the rescissions package.
He explained his 'no' vote on the motion to proceed to the bill and his vote to pass the package once it was on the floor as reflecting his reservations about letting the White House dictate spending decisions to Capitol Hill.
'My belief in the importance of American soft power is not in conflict with my commitment to holding government accountable for inefficiency, and I take Congress' responsibility to rein in federal spending seriously,' he said in a statement. 'The Administration's rescissions request is not the way I would prefer to act on this responsibility, but faced with a choice between spending reduction and no reduction, I voted in favor of the rescission.'
One GOP senator who requested anonymity applauded McConnell for pushing back against increasing pressure from the White House to carry out its demands for spending cuts, demands that have chaffed Republican members of the Appropriations Committee especially.
'I think it's him being Mitch McConnell as the senior senator from Kentucky, as a leader in the Senate for decades who no longer has the burden of leadership and is just free to be a lawmaker. I think that's what you see in Mitch; I love it,' one senator said.
The senator described the Office of Management and Budget's response to senators' concerns about the rescissions package as 'dismissive.'
McConnell declared in October he would feel more free to vote his conscience once he stepped down from the Republican leadership role and would have less of an obligation to toe the party's line.
'Here's one way to look at it: Free at last,' McConnell quipped during a talk to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. 'What I mean by that, is when you're the leader — if you're smart — you're looking out for everybody else. You also — if you're smart — understand you're going to take all the arrows that are coming in in order to protect your members.
'I'm actually looking forward to the next couple of years to focusing on what I want to focus on,' he said.
A couple of Republican senators see McConnell's 'no' votes on the procedural motions to advance the rescissions package as part of a broader trend this year, noting that he also voted for a resolution in April to undo Trump's punitive tariffs against Canada.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he thought McConnell's votes breaking with the GOP leadership were 'more directed at Trump.'
A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to speak on the subject said McConnell doesn't mind sticking Trump in the eye given their rocky relationship, which hit a low point after McConnell refused to endorse Trump's claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
McConnell told his biographer, Michael Tackett of The Associated Press, that he thought the 'MAGA movement is completely wrong' and that former President Reagan 'wouldn't recognize' the party today.
But he sounded a more conciliatory tone after Trump won a sweeping victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
'I want Trump to be successful,' he said right after the election.
A person familiar with McConnell's thinking said his 'no' votes have never been about political vengeance and have always been about policy.
In addition to voting to unwind Trump's tariff on Canada, McConnell voted against Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominees to head the Department of Defense, serve as director of national intelligence, and lead the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.
A few Republican senators saw McConnell's no votes this week as a veiled 'shot' at Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), McConnell's long-time deputy who replaced him as GOP leader at the start of the year.
'I wonder if this rescissions thing is a little bit of a shot at John Thune,' said a third Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment frankly on McConnell's relationship with the new leadership team.
'Thune pretty much sidelined him during the reconciliation debate, which makes sense to me because Thune's the leader now,' the lawmaker said. 'You can tell that McConnell tried to insert himself a couple of different times over the course of the months in meetings. Thune would let him talk but then he would quickly move him aside, he wouldn't comment, he wouldn't engage.
'Why would he vote against rescissions? There's nothing in here that's ideological that would bother him,' the senator said of the votes against proceeding to the bill. 'He's not for public broadcasting money, he's voting against that a bunch of times.'
McConnell voted for the $15 billion rescissions package Trump sent to Congress in 2018, when Republicans controlled both chambers and McConnell was Senate majority leader.
That package narrowly failed in the Senate by a 48-50 vote.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) called McConnell's votes against motions to discharge the rescissions bill from the Appropriations Committee and to proceed to it on the Senate floor as 'disappointing.'
'Rescissions are a legitimate appropriations process, albeit rarely used,' he said, countering the argument pushed by members of the Appropriations Committee that the White House's request for rescissions undercut congressional spending authority.
Cramer suggested that McConnell owes Thune more loyalty after many years of pressing GOP colleagues to stay unified on tough votes when he was the leader.
'As leader, he certainly would have done everything he could to earn our 'yes' vote as part of the team effort,' he said. 'It's certainly disappointing to see him not do that for … John Thune, who was a very, very good and loyal lieutenant.'
Cramer said voting for the rescissions package 'is as easy as it gets.'
A source familiar with McConnell's relationship with Thune said while the two men have 'different styles,' they both have a lot to offer the GOP conference by working together.
'While Leader Thune and Sen. McConnell … approached the [leader's] role with different styles, they both understand — better than anyone else in the conference — the hurdles and opportunities that come with the job,' the source said.
'They speak frequently, and Leader Thune appreciates and values the unique role Sen. McConnell plays, having served as leader for nearly two decades and now as chair of the Rules Committee and as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee,' the source said.
McConnell gave Republican senators a 'pep talk' about sticking together when they held the first vote-a-rama to pave the way for Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill Act and again urged his colleagues to band together to beat back Democratic attempts to divide them over proposed cuts to Medicaid, according to another source familiar with McConnell's efforts to help Thune get the reconciliation package across the finish line.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Washington Post
42 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Doonesbury Comic Strips by Garry Trudeau - July 17, 1990
........Trump on Jeffrey Epstein: "Somebody that nobody cares about."....Lara Loomer: "How come we can't talk about what a dumb lying bimbo Pam Blondi is?...How many more times is this woman going to get away with F-ing everything up before she is fired?"....Trump on Rosie O'Donnell: "She is a threat to humanity."....O'Donnell in response: "I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours. I'm everything you fear: a loud woman, a queer woman, a mother who tells the truth, an American who got out of the country before you set it ablaze."....Trump on Elon Musk: "50% genius, 50% boy."....Steve Bannon: "Formerly known as Elon Musk, Elmo the not an American, you're a South we take enough time and prove the facts of that, you should be deported because it's a crime what you did -- among many."....Musk: "The fat, drunken slob called Bannon will go back to prison and this time for a long time. He has a lifetime of crime to pay for."....Tucker Carlson: "Why are my cities disgusting? I don't even want to go there. It smells like weed and halal food."....CA Gov. Gavin Newsom: "Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields. Trump calls me 'Newscum' but he's the real scum."....Jonathan V. Last on Trump: "Reinventing ICE as the primary instrument of internal state power. ICE is more or less a national brute squad."...Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Trump: "Authoritarian leader cult is folding to his will."....CA Governor's press office on Stephen Miller: "This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen. Cry harder."....Charlie Kirk on Texas flooding: "The death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn't for DEI."....Dean Blundell on Trump: "An aging, increasingly incoherent, barely upright man."....Maureen Dowd: "Trump, who plays at being king, is not interested in virtue; only in humiliation, conflict, enrichment and revenge."....Tina Brown: "Out of Trump's ass, his ego, and his flawless media intuition, came: Let's bomb the shit out of Fordo."....John Cleese on Trump administration: "This is why dictatorships fail. Dictators always surround themselves with yes-people who are terrified to acquaint the dictator with reality."....Trump on Sen. Rand Paul: "His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can't stand him."....VP JD Vance: "I empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle difference is that back then we had dumb presidents."....Andrew Sullivan: "A president who lies about everything all the time is singularly incapable of being a war president. People have to trust your word in a war. But Trump's word is toilet paper."....John Oliver on ICE agents: "These are criminal gangs,...bounty hunters making money for each body they manage to kidnap. They have quotas. You are their USA is sick."....WH Communications Director Steven Cheung: "The Nobel Peace Prize is illegitimate if President Trump -- the ultimate peace president -- is denied his rightful recognition of bringing harmony across the world."....Rep. MTG: "America is the greatest country in the world and I fight the nasty 'America Last' Democrats in Washington to keep it that way."....Trump on Democrats: "I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country."....Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on House passing Trump's BBB: "One big ugly is a crime scene."....Jonathan Alter: "Might as well tear down the Statue of LIberty and flush Emma Lazarus's poem down the toilet."....Garrison Keillor: "Every morning the news hits us like a baseball bat. How did this crook and clown achieve the White House so he could wage war on science, higher education, the Constitution, regulatory agencies, and the world economy, while redecorating the Oval Office to look like the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas?"....Trump supporter to reporter "We're not stupid. Donald Trump is a genius. That's what the J stands for.".... ........Trump on Jeffrey Epstein: "Somebody that nobody cares about."....Lara Loomer: "How come we can't talk about what a dumb lying bimbo Pam Blondi is?...How many more times is this woman going to get away with F-ing everything up before she is fired?"....Trump on Rosie O'Donnell: "She is a threat to humanity."....O'Donnell in response: "I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours. I'm everything you fear: a loud woman, a queer woman, a mother who tells the truth, an American who got out of the country before you set it ablaze."....Trump on Elon Musk: "50% genius, 50% boy."....Steve Bannon: "Formerly known as Elon Musk, Elmo the not an American, you're a South we take enough time and prove the facts of that, you should be deported because it's a crime what you did -- among many."....Musk: "The fat, drunken slob called Bannon will go back to prison and this time for a long time. He has a lifetime of crime to pay for."....Tucker Carlson: "Why are my cities disgusting? I don't even want to go there. It smells like weed and halal food."....CA Gov. Gavin Newsom: "Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields. Trump calls me 'Newscum' but he's the real scum."....Jonathan V. Last on Trump: "Reinventing ICE as the primary instrument of internal state power. ICE is more or less a national brute squad."...Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Trump: "Authoritarian leader cult is folding to his will."....CA Governor's press office on Stephen Miller: "This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen. Cry harder."....Charlie Kirk on Texas flooding: "The death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn't for DEI."....Dean Blundell on Trump: "An aging, increasingly incoherent, barely upright man."....Maureen Dowd: "Trump, who plays at being king, is not interested in virtue; only in humiliation, conflict, enrichment and revenge."....Tina Brown: "Out of Trump's ass, his ego, and his flawless media intuition, came: Let's bomb the shit out of Fordo."....John Cleese on Trump administration: "This is why dictatorships fail. Dictators always surround themselves with yes-people who are terrified to acquaint the dictator with reality."....Trump on Sen. Rand Paul: "His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can't stand him."....VP JD Vance: "I empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle difference is that back then we had dumb presidents."....Andrew Sullivan: "A president who lies about everything all the time is singularly incapable of being a war president. People have to trust your word in a war. But Trump's word is toilet paper."....John Oliver on ICE agents: "These are criminal gangs,...bounty hunters making money for each body they manage to kidnap. They have quotas. You are their USA is sick."....WH Communications Director Steven Cheung: "The Nobel Peace Prize is illegitimate if President Trump -- the ultimate peace president -- is denied his rightful recognition of bringing harmony across the world."....Rep. MTG: "America is the greatest country in the world and I fight the nasty 'America Last' Democrats in Washington to keep it that way."....Trump on Democrats: "I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country."....Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on House passing Trump's BBB: "One big ugly is a crime scene."....Jonathan Alter: "Might as well tear down the Statue of LIberty and flush Emma Lazarus's poem down the toilet."....Garrison Keillor: "Every morning the news hits us like a baseball bat. How did this crook and clown achieve the White House so he could wage war on science, higher education, the Constitution, regulatory agencies, and the world economy, while redecorating the Oval Office to look like the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas?"....Trump supporter to reporter "We're not stupid. Donald Trump is a genius. That's what the J stands for.".... ........Trump on Jeffrey Epstein: "Somebody that nobody cares about."....Lara Loomer: "How come we can't talk about what a dumb lying bimbo Pam Blondi is?...How many more times is this woman going to get away with F-ing everything up before she is fired?"....Trump on Rosie O'Donnell: "She is a threat to humanity."....O'Donnell in response: "I still live rent-free in that collapsing brain of yours. I'm everything you fear: a loud woman, a queer woman, a mother who tells the truth, an American who got out of the country before you set it ablaze."....Trump on Elon Musk: "50% genius, 50% boy."....Steve Bannon: "Formerly known as Elon Musk, Elmo the not an American, you're a South we take enough time and prove the facts of that, you should be deported because it's a crime what you did -- among many."....Musk: "The fat, drunken slob called Bannon will go back to prison and this time for a long time. He has a lifetime of crime to pay for."....Tucker Carlson: "Why are my cities disgusting? I don't even want to go there. It smells like weed and halal food."....CA Gov. Gavin Newsom: "Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields. Trump calls me 'Newscum' but he's the real scum."....Jonathan V. Last on Trump: "Reinventing ICE as the primary instrument of internal state power. ICE is more or less a national brute squad."...Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Trump: "Authoritarian leader cult is folding to his will."....CA Governor's press office on Stephen Miller: "This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen. Cry harder."....Charlie Kirk on Texas flooding: "The death toll likely would not have been as high if it wasn't for DEI."....Dean Blundell on Trump: "An aging, increasingly incoherent, barely upright man."....Maureen Dowd: "Trump, who plays at being king, is not interested in virtue; only in humiliation, conflict, enrichment and revenge."....Tina Brown: "Out of Trump's ass, his ego, and his flawless media intuition, came: Let's bomb the shit out of Fordo."....John Cleese on Trump administration: "This is why dictatorships fail. Dictators always surround themselves with yes-people who are terrified to acquaint the dictator with reality."....Trump on Sen. Rand Paul: "His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can't stand him."....VP JD Vance: "I empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle difference is that back then we had dumb presidents."....Andrew Sullivan: "A president who lies about everything all the time is singularly incapable of being a war president. People have to trust your word in a war. But Trump's word is toilet paper."....John Oliver on ICE agents: "These are criminal gangs,...bounty hunters making money for each body they manage to kidnap. They have quotas. You are their USA is sick."....WH Communications Director Steven Cheung: "The Nobel Peace Prize is illegitimate if President Trump -- the ultimate peace president -- is denied his rightful recognition of bringing harmony across the world."....Rep. MTG: "America is the greatest country in the world and I fight the nasty 'America Last' Democrats in Washington to keep it that way."....Trump on Democrats: "I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country."....Rep. Hakeem Jeffries on House passing Trump's BBB: "One big ugly is a crime scene."....Jonathan Alter: "Might as well tear down the Statue of LIberty and flush Emma Lazarus's poem down the toilet."....Garrison Keillor: "Every morning the news hits us like a baseball bat. How did this crook and clown achieve the White House so he could wage war on science, higher education, the Constitution, regulatory agencies, and the world economy, while redecorating the Oval Office to look like the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas?"....Trump supporter to reporter "We're not stupid. Donald Trump is a genius. That's what the J stands for."....
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
3 Cryptocurrencies That Could Soar in the Second Half of 2025
Key Points Bitcoin continues to see strong demand from institutional investors, and appears to have the full backing of the Trump administration. Ethereum could be a major beneficiary of new crypto legislation, especially if it leads to more activity in decentralized finance (DeFi). While meme coins will likely soar in value alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum, long-term investors should look elsewhere for upside. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › All lights appear to be flashing green for the crypto market right now. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) just hit a new all-time high of more than $123,000. New crypto legislation is making its way through Congress. And many are talking about "Stablecoin Summer." In short, the stage could be set for a big year-end rally in the crypto market. Here are three cryptocurrencies that have the potential to soar during the next five months. Bitcoin Of course, the obvious pick is Bitcoin. Historically, Bitcoin has always led the market higher. So if you think that the crypto market is headed higher, then you need to think about buying Bitcoin, which accounts for a whopping 62% of the total value of the crypto market. Institutional demand for Bitcoin remains strong. Money is once again surging into the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). At the same time, new Bitcoin treasury companies are launching left and right. These companies, modeled after Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the original Bitcoin treasury company, are amassing billions of dollars to buy Bitcoin. Moreover, Bitcoin is getting plenty of attention from the Trump administration. In many ways, the price of Bitcoin has become a proxy for the overall health of the crypto market and the success of the Trump administration's pro-crypto policies. During "Crypto Week," President Donald Trump specifically linked the success of crypto to his overall campaign theme of "Make America Great Again." So I'm fully expecting a new push for an enhanced Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, as well as other moves that could send Bitcoin higher in the second half of the year. Ethereum If there's any cryptocurrency that comes close to Bitcoin in terms of support from the Trump White House, it's Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). If there is going to be a merger of traditional finance and blockchain finance, as many now expect, then Ethereum is going to be a big part of it. Ethereum is still the go-to blockchain for decentralized finance (DeFi), where it holds a commanding 58% market share. Ethereum is also the primary blockchain for stablecoins, which have emerged as one of the hottest crypto success stories of the year. These are two areas of the crypto market that hold the highest appeal for Wall Street financial firms. Keep in mind, though, that Ethereum is up less than 2% for the year (as of July 17). So Ethereum is much less of a slam dunk than Bitcoin. But there is one key development coming up soon that could light a fire under Ethereum, and that is the imminent passage of the Clarity Act. The Clarity Act, which is one of the two pieces of legislation under review by Congress during "Crypto Week," provides specific guidance on how digital assets should be regulated. The thinking now is that the overall regulatory treatment will be very favorable, opening the door for institutions to offer a much broader array of crypto-related financial products. That could unlock even more demand for DeFi, thereby helping to push the price of Ethereum higher. The one meme coin you should not buy During any bullish cycle, crypto investors typically rotate into riskier and riskier investments, as they search for higher and higher returns. That usually means an embrace of meme coins, which are among the riskiest and most speculative cryptocurrencies out there. At the end of 2024, the same phenomenon occurred, as pro-crypto euphoria led to meme coin buying. It's impossible to predict which meme coin will pop next, but it looks like Pudgy Penguins (CRYPTO: PENGU), the meme coin inspired by the Pudgy Penguins non-fungible token (NFT) collection, could lead the way. In the past week, Pudgy Penguins soared as much as 60%. That happened after Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) briefly changed its social media profile photo to a Pudgy Penguin. Crypto influencers and some crypto firms followed suit, showing their support for the meme coin. I've written before about the perils of investing in dog-themed meme coins. Those warnings are even stronger for penguin-themed meme coins. Buying priorities If you are choosing which cryptocurrency to buy next, the clear choice is Bitcoin. If history is any guide, Bitcoin has the ability to perform well during periods of extreme market uncertainty. So, even if you are expecting market turmoil ahead due to tariffs, Bitcoin could provide a hedge. The same cannot be said for Ethereum, or any other altcoin. There's no guarantee, of course, that Bitcoin will soar during the next few months. However, both Bernstein and Standard Chartered have recently come out with $200,000 price predictions for Bitcoin, so it definitely has the potential to double in value. If you're willing to accept the risks of investing in crypto, then Bitcoin could be a great way to turbocharge the performance of your portfolio in 2025. Should you invest $1,000 in Bitcoin right now? Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $687,149!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,060,406!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,069% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Cryptocurrencies That Could Soar in the Second Half of 2025 was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio


The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Most Americans think Trump megabill will benefit wealthy people: Survey
Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the 'big, beautiful bill' will do more to help wealthy people, according to a new AP-NORC poll. That includes 48 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of independents, and 83 percent of Democrats, according to the poll, which was released on Friday. The bill extends many of the tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017 during President Trump's first term, alongside significant reductions to welfare services. Democrats have assailed the law as a historic transfer of wealth to the rich from the poor. Sixty-one percent of Americans also said the law would do more to hurt low-income people. However, the two parties were divided on the question of low-income Americans. Less than a third of Republicans said the bill would do more to harm low-income people, compared to 90 percent of Democrats. Democrats are hoping to use the bill's cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and other government support programs as key messaging during the upcoming 2026 midterms. The bill's effects on low-income Americans, however, could take several years to show. The bill's deepest funding cuts to Medicaid, which could result in millions losing their insurance in the next 10 years, will not kick in until 2028, although work requirements could begin by the end of 2026. Changes to SNAP will also not go into effect until 2028. The bill has also garnered criticism for its long-term additions to the national debt, estimated to be in the trillions. Many economists have expressed concerns about its cost at a time when government spending was already thought to be unsustainable in the long run. In the poll released Friday, approval of Trump's handling of government spending was down to 38 percent, compared to 46 percent from an AP-NORC poll in March. About two-thirds of Americans think the government is spending too much, with Republicans and Democrats in agreement, according to the poll. The poll surveyed 1,437 adults between July 10 and July 14, with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.