Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attends a press conference following the weekly Republican Party luncheon on July 26, 2022 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
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Donald Trump called Mitch McConnell a “piece of shit,” according to a forthcoming book by Maggie Haberman.
The former president said he thought congressional leaders would rule “with an iron first.”
Trump spoke with Haberman for her book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”
Former President Donald Trump called his political-ally-turned-nemesis Mitch McConnell a “piece of shit,” according to a new book.
Trump made the comments about the Senate Minority Leader to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman in her upcoming book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America,” an excerpt of which was published Sunday in The Atlantic.
According to Haberman, Trump thought congressional lawmakers would govern like Meade Esposito – a longtime “political fixer” in New York City politics who Trump said “ruled with an iron fist” – or like China’s President Xi Jinping, per The Atlantic.
“Well, I figured that the Mitch McConnells would be like him, in the sense of strength,” Trump told Haberman, according to The Atlantic.
McConnell was once a staunch ally of Trump’s who “kept Republican senators in line over and over to advance Trump’s policy and personnel concerns and generally protect his political standing as the leader of the Republican party,” Haberman wrote in The Atlantic.
Their relationship teetered during Trump’s presidency but largely soured after McConnell disavowed Trump following the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. McConnell said at the time that Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking,” Insider previously reported.
In one of Haberman’s later interviews with Trump for her book, he said of McConnell: “The Old Crow’s a piece of shit.”
A spokesperson for McConnell did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on Sunday.