Despite Trump’s electoral mandate, McConnell is going on offense against the president-elect’s America First worldview.
In an essay published in Foreign Affairs on Monday, McConnell called on Trump to reject America First’s alleged “flirtation with isolation and decline.”
McConnell is also urging the administration to embrace many foreign policy positions that Trump notably rejected during the campaign.
The positions include issuing support for additional foreign aid and free trade agreements, solidarity with NATO, and more weapons transfers to Ukraine.
The former Senate Republican leader wrote:
“The [Trump] administration will face calls from within the Republican Party to give up on American primacy. It must reject them.
“To pretend that the United States can focus on just one threat at a time, that its credibility is divisible, or that it can afford to shrug off faraway chaos as irrelevant is to ignore its global interests and its adversaries’ global designs.
“America will not be made great again by those who simply want to manage its decline.”
“The response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation,” McConnell added.
McConnell is advocating for an interventionist foreign policy reminiscent of the George W. Bush administration.
The top Republican is also pushing for a larger defense budget to deter multiple adversaries.
However, it raises questions over how far McConnell is willing to go in opposing Trump’s nominees and agenda.
In an interview published on December 11, McConnell told the Financial Times:
“We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War Two.
“Even the slogan is the same. ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.”
McConnell appears to be most at odds with Trump over the Ukraine issue.
The former Senate Republican leader claims that the Trump administration’s deterrence of Chinese aggression cannot be achieved without preventing a Russian victory in Ukraine.
“Standing up to China will require Trump to reject the myopic advice that he prioritize that challenge by abandoning Ukraine,” McConnell wrote in Foreign Affairs.
“A Russian victory would not only damage the United States’ interest in European security and increase U.S. military requirements in Europe; it would also compound the threats from China, Iran, and North Korea.”
Trump has promised to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine War.
He has also criticized President Joe Biden’s decision to escalate tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the final months of his presidency.
During his 2024 “Person of the Year” interview on Thursday,” Trump told Time magazine:
“It’s crazy what’s taking place. It’s crazy.
“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia.
“Why are we doing that?
“We’re just escalating this war and making it worse.
“That should not have been allowed to be done.
“Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons.
“And I think that’s a very big mistake.”
McConnell’s critique of Trump’s foreign policy record and worldview follows the president-elect’s decisive electoral win against failed Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
The historic victory marked the first time a Republican candidate won the so-called popular vote since 2004.
McConnell was reportedly one of the four senators who tanked former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s bid to serve as Trump’s attorney general.
The senator has yet to meet with Pete Hegseth or Tulsi Gabbard.
McConnell is up for reelection in 2026.
However, he has not commented on whether he plans to seek an eighth term.
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