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Donald Trump made a mistake. He asked for something Mitch McConnell doesn’t want. But anyone who demands something in American politics that Mitch McConnell, the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, doesn’t want, has a problem.
A common saying in Washington is that McConnell doesn’t care who the president is next to him. Some also say they don’t care who the president is under their command.
In any case, he is not only one of the most powerful men in America, but also one of the most astute tacticians in Congress. Trump is just feeling it.
Specifically, it concerns the president’s wish that emergency aid for needy Americans in the recently approved Corona aid package be increased from $ 600 to $ 2,000. He only signed the law, Trump said, because he had been assured that this increase would come, and that the Senate would also again address the issue of voter fraud and review legislation to protect social media.
Trump is interested in the last two issues because he continues to claim without any basis that the election was stolen and because it bothers him that Twitter has recently been warning his lies. However, McConnell has no interest in these issues.
Unable to say outright that he will not support Trump in his endeavors, McConnell is now doing what he has mastered like almost no one on Capitol Hill: playing his games.
With a serious expression and deep voice, he announced that the Senate would “initiate the process” to discuss these issues. In other words: in the first place, nothing happens about it.
Republicans consider the $ 2,000 emergency aid too expensive
Most Republicans are against increasing emergency aid to $ 2,000. They view the measure as too costly and also believe that in the medium term, President-elect Joe Biden will benefit if the state distributes the money too generously.
However, the House of Representatives now approved the increase, which requires a vote in the Senate. Democrats are willing to vote for the increase. A two-thirds majority is required.
Some of Trump’s most loyal supporters in the Senate have already said they would comply with his request for the raise. This is not surprising since his most loyal supporters would also agree if Trump asked them to wear a dog suit and say “wow.”
They are the usual suspects, on the front lines Lindsey Graham from South Carolina and Marco Rubio from Florida. Most senators, however, know, first, that Trump’s time is up and, second, that McConnell will remain the most powerful man in the party for the foreseeable future. So you have no interest in messing with him.
Now McConnell is not stupid enough to seek an open confrontation and forces senators to make a decision for him and against Trump. So what’s the easiest way to get the $ 2,000 problem off the table? He combines it with the other two issues Trump raised and puts it all in one bill.
It is as simple as it is ingenious. With that he was able to announce, again with a serious expression and a deep voice, that he had exactly fulfilled the president’s wishes. At the same time, he would have elegantly ruled out all three issues from the table, as Democrats would never pass a law saying there may have been fraud in the November election.
McConnell purposely mixes multiple themes in one container
So when McConnell says the Senate will “start the process” of discussing Trump’s wishes, he means he’s busy mixing things up in a large pot until it’s inedible for everyone. has become.
Although Trump currently spends many hours on the golf course every day, he still seems to have noticed something is wrong with him. That he, the self-proclaimed top negotiator, is being portrayed as a schoolboy by his fellow party members according to all the rules of the political art and that there is nothing he can do about it.
So he did what he always does. He had an outburst on Twitter and did not skimp on capital letters: If Republicans weren’t longing for death, they would have to increase payments to $ 2,000 immediately. Mitch McConnell must have followed the outbreak with great composure.
