McConnell gets candid on Trump, says a 2028 run would be unconstitutional
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- McConnell called a potential 2028 Trump run unconstitutional under the 22nd Amendment.
- He credited Trump-era judicial appointments as his top legacy in federal politics.
- He criticized Trump industrial policy moves, calling government investments anti-free market.
Sen. Mitch McConnell directly rejected the idea that President Donald Trump could serve a third term in the Oval Office during an extensive Herald-Leader interview Friday.
“No,” he said. “It’s unconstitutional.”
Trump, 79, and allies have floated it as a possibility, even though third terms are prohibited by the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
McConnell, 83, also offered his thoughts on the Trump administration’s actions both in policy and politics, shedding new light on the senator’s view of the White House.
Is America better now than when Trump became the main character of American politics some 10 years ago, when he announced his first run for president?
Too soon to say, McConnell said.
“I’m not sure enough time has passed to start evaluating who made a difference and who didn’t,” McConnell said. “I thought a good bit about that myself, just in terms of whether I thought I made a difference. And I think, as you’re already aware, at the federal level I think it would be the courts.”
Though McConnell and Trump have not always seen eye to eye, and the two have traded intense criticisms of each other, the federal courts are where McConnell sees himself as making his biggest mark on history with the help of Trump.
To great criticism, McConnell denied former President Barack Obama from filling a vacant seat on the Supreme Court of the United States for the better part of a year.
He didn’t think Republicans would get a chance to fill it.
In fact, McConnell told the Herald-Leader his top two priorities on Election Day 2016 were Kentucky Republicans flipping the state House and the U.S. Senate GOP keeping the majority. Both came to fruition.
With polls favoring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, Trump winning wasn’t even on his radar.
“It never occurred to me that Donald Trump would actually get elected, and when he did, we had the Supreme Court vacancy sitting there and an opportunity to change the court system, with quality strict constructionists, for a long time,” McConnell said.
Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch as well as Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett changed the face of the nation’s highest court, and likely will for decades given that appointments are for life.
McConnell announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection to his U.S. Senate seat, capping a 40-plus year career in the chamber – he is the longest serving party leader in U.S. history – in 2026. So far, the primary to replace him has been heated, featuring three Kentucky Republicans with high name ID.
Though McConnell has voted along with the president’s agenda more often than his Kentucky colleague Sen. Rand Paul, according to Washington outlet Congressional Quarterly, his status as an outgoing member has granted him the opportunity to get candid about Trump’s actions.
He’s been no fan of Trump’s tariffs, nor has he loved all of Trump’s cabinet picks, a few of whom he voted against.
But on Friday, McConnell picked his battles carefully.
Does he share any of the criticisms of Trump and Health and human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for firing the director of the Center for Disease Control after she would not commit to going along with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine policies?
“No,” he said, curtly.
But he offered a stark criticism of the administration acquiring shares of private companies like technology giant Intel and U.S. Steel, a move seen by many as anti-free market.
“I think it’s a terrible idea,” he said. “It’s industrial policy and the government (is) picking winners and losers. I don’t think we ought to go down that path at all.”
There’s no denying that Trump himself has shaken up the Republican Party in America, ushering in sizable demographic shifts and conceding some ground on once-untouchable subjects like abortion. McConnell was noncommital on if he wanted to see the Trump-branded GOP continue beyond 2028.
“That’s up to the voters,” he said, not elaborating beyond that.
McConnell offered well-wishes for the Trump administration’s actions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which began when Russia invaded its Eastern European neighbor more than two years ago. The Trump administration is pursuing peace talks between the nations, even as Russia continues its advance into Eastern Ukraine.
The senator, long considered a hawk on foreign aid and military spending, made the issue of continued funding for Ukraine a hallmark of his final years as Senate GOP leader.
“What we need to do is avoid the headline at the end of the war, ‘Russia wins, America loses.’ It has huge, worldwide implications,” McConnell said
What it would take to avoid the narrative McConnell wants to avoid isn’t so clear. He did not rule out the idea of Ukraine ceding land to Russia when pressed on the matter.
“What I think is we shouldn’t dictate the terms from outside. It’s pretty obvious the Russians are playing with the president. They’ve done nothing yet,” McConnell said. “Your question is, ‘what’s the definition of an acceptable agreement?’ Whatever the Ukrainians say. They ought to decide. They have to live there. If there’s a settlement, and I guess there will be at some point, in my view, it’s okay if Zelensky and the Ukrainians are okay with it.”
More from the Herald-Leader’s interview with McConnell will be posted next week.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM.
