McConnell-Trump Divide Deepens, Setting Stage for GOP Battle

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is making good on his word to “argu[e] more with [some Republicans] probably than the Democrats.”

The former Senate GOP leader’s opposition to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation could be a sign of what’s to come as the upper chamber aims to confirm President Donald Trump’s Cabinet and enact his agenda through the budget reconciliation process.

McConnell justified his vote Friday night against Hegseth by stating that “Effective management of nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests.”

“Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been,” McConnell continued.

The Senate confirmed Hegseth notwithstanding opposition from McConnell as well as Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine. They joined all Democrats in opposition, requiring Vice President JD Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote. Murkowski and Collins were unsurprising, not only given their announcements before the vote but also because of their frequent opposition to Trump dating to his first term. McConnell’s vote drew special ire.

After Hegseth’s confirmation vote, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., criticized his colleague from Kentucky: “[McConnell] doesn’t support Donald Trump and he doesn’t support an America First agenda. He never has. It’s why I ran against him for leader and why I’ll continue to fight for President Trump and his agenda.”

In 2022, Scott became the first Republican senator to challenge McConnell for GOP leader during his 18-year tenure in the job.

Though McConnell is out of leadership, he remains a powerful player in the defense space. He chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense, which oversees the allocation of more than $800 billion of the annual defense budget spending. 

McConnell views continued support for Ukraine as paramount to American foreign policy. 

“Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians, that’s the No. 1 priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans,” McConnell said in a press conference. 

A July 2024 poll from Pew Research Center found that 62% of Republicans think the United States does not have a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself from the Russian invasion.

Nevertheless, McConnell appears enthusiastic about his more interventionist approach to foreign policy, proclaiming that he would make the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., “sound like a dove.” 

For his part, Hegseth is widely seen as a threat to the establishment that governs the Defense Department and its related industries. Or as Vance put it in a recent interview, “I think Pete is a disrupter, and a lot of people don’t like that disruption, but … that disruption is incredibly necessary.” 

One area where Hegseth is expected to carry out Trump’s mandate for reform is weapons procurement. Policy analysts have already pointed out items in the department’s budget that could be cut for just that purpose. The Pentagon routinely faces bipartisan criticism for wasteful spending. It has failed to pass an audit since the government was obligated to begin carrying them out in 2018. 

“If you look at where we are with the rise of artificial intelligence, with the rise of drone technology and drone warfare, we have to really, top to bottom, change the way that we fund the procurement of weapons, the way that we arm our troops,” Vance said when explaining what the administration hoped Hegseth would accomplish.

McConnell told attendees last month at the Reagan National Defense Forum, “At both ends of our politics, a dangerous fiction is taking hold—that America’s primacy and the fruits of our leadership are self-sustaining. Even as allies across NATO and the Indo-Pacific renew their own commitments to hard power, to interoperability, and to collective defense, some now question America’s own role at the center of these force-multiplying institutions and partnerships.”

McConnell’s opposition to Trump’s agenda appears a bit out of touch with Kentuckians who voted for the new president at a nearly 2-to-1 margin in last year’s presidential election.

Writing for Fox Digital, David Marcus said the three Republican senators who opposed Hegseth were looking for the wrong type of experience in a defense secretary. “The problem for these senators was that Hegseth lacks the traditional credential of having worked for a defense contractor, the very type that have been captured over the past two decades by the woke agenda Hegseth has vowed to eliminate,” Marcus wrote. 

Steve Krakauer, executive producer of the popular “Megyn Kelly Show,” told followers on X, “We shouldn’t minimize what Mitch McConnell did last night by forcing the tie on Hegseth. This is war—an out-in-the-open fight between the MAGA wing and the establishment wing of the GOP. McConnell vs. Trump will be the showdown of 2025—and makes next week with RFK and Tulsi very intriguing.”

Hegseth could just be the start. McConnell has declined to publicly support former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whose confirmation hearing is set for Thursday. Then, of course, there’s budget reconciliation.

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