Trump didn’t talk about aid to Ukraine. McConnell says that may have made the difference.

Former President Donald Trump blew up his share of deals on Capitol Hill, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump’s decision to stay silent on a massive $95 billion foreign aid package of dollars – including crucial aid for Ukraine – could have ruined everything. the difference in getting the bill across the finish line.

McConnell had staked his legacy on passing a national security aid package Tuesday night, guaranteeing billions in aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, and to achieve it, he pushed back hard isolationist wing of his own party, convincing 30 other Republicans. to join him.

And this victory, he said in an ABC News interview Wednesday, will also help persuade Trump to change his mind.

McConnell was eager to talk about how he plans to make fighting isolationism his mission during his remaining time in the Senate, including after he steps down as Republican leader in November.

“I’m not leaving the Senate. And that will be my main goal going forward, and I think it’s important for us and for the rest of the world,” he said.

McConnell as Republican Reagan

Trump, who has participated in a number of legislative debates in recent weeks, has not directly weighed in on how members should vote on the Ukraine aid plan. On Tuesday, the former president appeared to embrace House Speaker Mike Johnson, who stuck his neck out to ensure the package could pass.

McConnell, who had a tumultuous relationship with the former president, acknowledged that Trump’s decision to side with Johnson and keep his views on Ukraine aid to himself could have swung his party in the direction in which McConnell begged them to go further. year: far from isolationism, towards American global leadership.

“I think the issues generally reflect either the chair of your party and your office or the candidate for president, and I think a lot of the opinions that Republicans will have as a whole will be based not on what we have done in Congress, but on the position of the candidate or president is,” McConnell said. “I was encouraged that he allegedly embraced the speaker and decided to stop talking about this issue.”

The Republican leader sees himself in the mold of Ronald Reagan, whose worldview of “peace through strength” has become increasingly less visible in Trump’s “America First” Republican Party.

At times, early in the foreign aid debate, McConnell said he felt like the only Reagan Republican in the room.

“At first it kind of was,” McConnell said when asked if he felt isolated. “But I think it’s gotten better.”

Protest to Trump

For McConnell, passing the multi-pronged supplemental aid package was key to demonstrating to Trump that globalist views can be popular with Republicans.

“I know how much he loves winning,” McConnell said. “And that seems like a winning question, not a losing question.”

That’s why McConnell, who is stepping down as GOP leader in November after 18 years on the job, said he’s not done opposing isolationism.

For now, McConnell believes he has fended off the lure of isolationism within his party.

“At least on this issue, I think the isolationist movement has not been as close,” he said.

Opposition to border deal helped pave way, says Trump

Although McConnell ultimately succeeded in passing the bill, it took more than six months for Congress to act on President Joe Biden’s request for additional aid for Ukraine.

The delay is partly due to Republican efforts to condition foreign aid on strong provisions to secure the U.S. southern border. That effort failed after Republicans rejected a bipartisan deal containing many of the provisions they themselves had insisted on.

McConnell said the border remains a looming issue that requires attention.

But he also admits that the choice to focus on the border as part of the discussion over a foreign aid package may have been a costly distraction from the initial additional national security demand.

And it was former President Trump who finally cleared the game.

“I would love to solve the border problem, we actually tried,” McConnell said. “But most of my colleagues decided it wasn’t enough and the former president said he preferred it not be done at all, which kind of moved the line further.”

With the border issue officially overturned, MPs were able to more easily support the bill. That’s part of the reason McConnell estimates the package attracted nine additional Republican supporters between its consideration in February and its passage Tuesday night.

“I think once the border issue was settled, not in the way that we all preferred, but obviously nothing was going to happen, you had the original supplement there,” McConnell said.

“I think once members focus on the facts, only the facts, it’s very difficult to oppose the proposal,” he said.

Trump’s opposition to the border provision may, ultimately, have been a key element in getting foreign aid passed.

Embracing foreign aid makes Reagan-style approach ‘look like a winner’

Johnson sat on the Senate supplemental bill for more than two months. He ultimately let the House of Representatives vote on the bill in pieces after Trump backed away from expressing a direct opinion on how members should proceed.

“He gave everyone the opportunity to vote, which is a good way to determine what will pass or not,” McConnell said of Johnson’s maneuvers. “And I think that was really, in his situation, a pretty courageous decision.”

Johnson has been threatened with losing his gavel over the advancement of the foreign aid program, in part because of an increasingly isolationist House GOP conference. In the Senate, about 70% of Republicans supported the foreign aid plan. But more than half of House Republicans rejected aid to Ukraine.

McConnell attributes anti-Ukrainian sentiments among Republicans in both chambers to ousted Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.

“Tucker Carlson had a massive following of many rank-and-file Republicans, who began to attack Ukraine,” McConnell said. “And the former president was skeptical about it. And it had a huge impact on public opinion.”

But Tuesday night’s vote, McConnell believes, is a crucial step in changing public opinion, especially as he seeks to lead his members to win back the Senate in November’s elections.

“On Tuesday, the Reagan-style approach appears to be a winner, not a loser,” McConnell said. “And I think this is the beginning of a shift in public opinion.”