Trump says McConnell ‘got played like a fiddle’ on Democrats’ spending bill

Former President Trump laid into Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday after Senate Democrats passed their long-awaited health care, tax and climate package.

“Mitch McConnell got played like a fiddle with the vote today by the Senate Democrats,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“First he gave them the fake Infrastructure Bill, then Guns, never used the Debt Ceiling for negotiating purposes (gave it away for NOTHING!), and now this,” Trump said. “Mitch doesn’t have a clue – he is sooo bad for the Republican Party!”

Trump has repeatedly criticized the top Senate Republican, whom the former president calls “Old Crow,” since leaving the White House after the duo’s relationship soured over McConnell’s acceptance of President Biden’s victory in 2020.

Trump’s latest attacks come after all 50 Senate Democrats on Sunday voted in favor of the sweeping legislative package, which would invest billions in climate-related programs, enable Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and reduce the federal deficit. 

Unlike the other legislation mentioned in Trump’s post, the bill was passed without any Republican support. Democrats used reconciliation, an arcane budget process that avoids the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

Senate Republicans could not stop the reconciliation bill’s passage, but GOP senators offered dozens of amendments in a so-called vote-a-rama that lasted throughout the night in attempts to change the bill and force Democrats to take unpopular votes.

McConnell released a statement shortly after the bill passed accusing Democrats of doubling down on the policies he blamed for soaring inflation.

“Democrats have proven over and over they simply do not care about middle-class families’ priorities. They have spent 18 months proving that. They just spent hundreds of billions of dollars to prove it again,” he said.

“But the working Americans they have failed will be writing Democrats’ report cards in three months’ time.”

Trump’s post also criticizes legislation passed following bipartisan negotiations, like a $1.2 trillion infrastructure law passed last year and a gun safety package negotiated after high-profile mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, N.Y.

McConnell deputized other members of his caucus to negotiate those bills, but the Republican leader ultimately voted for both deals.