Trump, speaking to donors, sharply insults a top Republican

Addressing a meeting of affluent donors and top Republican officials, Donald Trump spent more time lashing out at fellow Republicans – and most sharply at their Senate leader – than at Democrats, news media reported Sunday.

The former president, speaking Saturday to members of the Republican National Committee at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, called for party unity in the wake of his loss to Joe Biden and the party’s loss of Senate control.

But his piercing criticism of fellow party members have created awkward complications for Republican leaders as they look to 2022 midterm elections and beyond. As Trump continued on Saturday to assert falsely that he won the November election, he particularly excoriated Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, calling him a “dumb (expletive)” and a “stone cold loser.”

Trump has blamed McConnell for not fighting to block Congress’s Jan 6 certification of Biden’s election victory – certification that took place only after a pro-Trump mob violently stormed the Capitol building.

McConnell later declared that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the deadly attack.

The former president, in his remarks Saturday, also criticized McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who was Trump’s transportation secretary but who resigned following the events of Jan 6.

“I hired his wife. Did he ever say thank you?” Trump said, before mocking Chao for resigning. – AFP