Mitch McConnell just wrote an opinion piece in the highly partisan Washington Post excoriating the Trump administration for slowing the pace of massive U.S. taxpayer assistance to the Volodymyr Zelenskyy government in Kyiv.
Mitch McConnell was first elected to the Senate over 40 years ago, in 1984. For several years now, public incidents have cast serious doubts upon the physical and mental ability of the senator to properly fulfill the demands of his office, as he now heads into retirement.
Accordingly, any rational observer of McConnell might harbor real doubts that he even penned this latest pro-escalation, Zelensky-adoring screed. Nonetheless, it is vital for the patriotic populist movement to continue to make the case for an America First foreign policy of realism and restraint, consistent with years of campaigning and messaging from the movement.
Moreover, peace appears nearer than ever for the protracted Black Sea conflict. As such, this current moment represents a fulcrum opportunity for President Donald Trump to achieve a historic peace for the world, while concurrently reassuring his MAGA base at home that he remains committed to peace and diplomacy, even as battles rage in the Persian Gulf.
President Trump himself just stated that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin both agreed on a phone call that an imminent ceasefire should happen, likely coinciding with the May 9th Russian holiday commemorating the end of WWII. But according to the Kremlin readout of the call, despite that U.S.-Russian concurrence toward peace, Zelensky remains “incited and supported by Europeans” into “pursuing a strategy aimed at prolonging the conflict.”
In fact, Zelensky seems so committed to continuing the fighting—and stoking disagreement with the U.S.—that he just accused Vice President J. D. Vance of actively assisting Moscow, stating, “J.D. Vance is proud that he’s not helping Ukraine; it means he’s helping Russians.” This irrational maximalist mentality unfortunately has influential adherents, from the Ukrainian president to the leaders of the E.U., to interventionist Washington powerbrokers like Mitch McConnell. In his Washington Post piece, for example, McConnell (or his ghostwriter) claims that the U.S. is “already paying a price for inaction. The Biden and Trump administrations have both failed to take advantage of Ukraine’s advances.”
McConnell also falsely claims that the masses of American citizens support his fantasies of continual escalation. In fact, as I detailed in a March RealClear Politics article with polling, in the military-heavy battleground state of North Carolina, voters expressed their exhaustion with the U.S. role in the Russia-Ukraine war. By a wide +19% margin, they responded that if peace is not reached shortly, then America should “disengage” from the battle, 50–31%. Among young Gen Z voters, that margin balloons to +42%. Among Tar Heel State Republicans, a whopping +48% want America to extricate itself from the Black Sea standoff.
A driving reason for Americans turning against this intervention flows from the increasingly blatant evidence of systemic, large-scale corruption at the highest levels of the Zelensky government. Recently, the “Operation Midas” scandal sent shockwaves throughout the war-torn nation, as battle-weary citizens learned that hundreds of millions of dollars were pilfered from wartime public coffers by close associates of Zelensky himself.
The characters and expenditures involved in this scheme resemble a bad mafia movie, with top officials nicknamed “Sugarman” and ill-gotten wealth used to buy toilets made of gold—hence the “Midas” moniker. The scandal led to the departure of Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who was widely regarded as a co-president and suspected of turbocharged corruption.
Turning back to domestic politics, the November outlook for Republicans worsens as recent polling reveals widespread dissatisfaction with the economy and the war vs. Iran. As such, achieving peace for Ukraine would represent a major win for Team Trump. Moreover, for a dispirited base of America First voters, it would reinforce their belief in a movement that focuses on peace abroad through diplomacy and a laser focus on the domestic issues that matter most here at home.
As usual, Mitch is wrong, and President Trump should show the way to peace overseas and prosperity for Main Street, USA.
Steve Cortes is president of the League of American Workers and an advisor to Catholic Vote. He directs political campaigns on media, polling, and Hispanic outreach, including Trump 2016/2020 and Vance 2022 U.S. Senate. He is a former broadcaster for Fox News and CNN.
