Mitch McConnell

US President Donald Trump speaks as he arrives at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, US, October 13, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci

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Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) used a Wall Street Journal op-ed this weekend to tear into President Donald Trump’s approach to Russia, and buried at the end was a warning that Trump’s end-of-year agenda could hang in the balance.

In the piece, published Sunday, the former Senate Republican leader argued that Trump’s “gambit to end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring the victim is certain to fail.”

McConnell zeroed in on Trump’s claim last week that Russia “frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” which the president made the same day a Russian drone strike on a park killed six people, including two children.

“This is factually wrong, strategically naive and morally bankrupt,” McConnell wrote. He warned that Trump’s “obsequious accommodation of Russia,” including sanctions relief, “won’t persuade Mr. Putin to stop.”

The Kentucky Republican also compared Trump to Biden, a predecessor he “scorns.” He noted that in 2021, President Joe Biden paused lethal aid to Ukraine ahead of a summit with Vladimir Putin, and that Russia invaded the following year. Trump, McConnell wrote, “seems determined to repeat the mistakes.”

He urged Trump to heed “the wisdom of the American people, not naive businessmen who seem to think diplomacy entails fawning over adversaries.” He also took aim at the Pentagon, writing that not a single senior Pentagon policy official appears to have visited Ukraine, “and it shows.” McConnell has previously accused the department’s policy office of stalling Ukraine aid that Congress approved.

At the end, McConnell wrote that Trump “has high hopes for a lame-duck legislative agenda,” but that passing it “will require working with Republicans who know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys.”

“Ending the obeisance to Mr. Putin may be table stakes for the end-of-year legislation,” he wrote. “The president should plan accordingly.”

The op-ed comes as senators from both parties are reportedly threatening to hold up Trump’s nominees in the lame-duck session unless the administration restores the satellite communications Ukraine’s military relies on.

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