Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has emerged as one of the biggest wild cards in the Senate, keeping his Republican colleagues guessing about how he’ll vote on elements of President Trump’s agenda.

McConnell has been largely sidelined from important leadership-level discussions since he stepped down as Senate Republican leader at the end of 2024 after a record-setting 18 years in the post, say Senate colleagues.

But the crafty veteran senator has used high-profile dissenting votes and carefully timed statements to make his influence felt throughout the Senate GOP conference and to signal when he thinks Trump — and by extension, Trump’s allies in Congress — are moving in the wrong direction.

In doing so, he’s using his leverage to preserve the values of the traditional GOP establishment in Washington.

McConnell this week voted against two critical procedural motions to advance a proposal to claw back $9 billion in funding Congress had already appropriated, legislation that was a top priority of Trump and Russell Vought, Trump’s controversial leader of the White House budget office.

McConnell joined moderate Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), in voting to block the bill from coming to the floor. And he did so with no public warning, playing his cards close to the vest and leaving his colleagues guessing about what he would do.

He also voted with Collins and Murkowski for an amendment sponsored by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) to shrink the size of the rescissions package by exempting $496 million for international disaster relief from the cuts. It failed 49 to 50 on an otherwise party-line vote.

McConnell threw colleagues another curveball when he voted “aye” on final passage of the rescissions package.

He explained his “no” vote on the motion to proceed to the bill and his vote to pass the package once it was on the floor as reflecting his reservations about letting the White House dictate spending decisions to Capitol Hill.

“My belief in the importance of American soft power is not in conflict with my commitment to holding government accountable for........

© The Hill