Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell is now in his remaining weeks as the highest Republican within the Senate. And he’s spending these weeks sending hints about his dissatisfaction on the path of President-elect Donald Trump’s potential administration.

McConnell’s affect has severely diminished in recent times. His try to strike a compromise invoice that might swap border safety for support to Ukraine failed. The newer, extra Trump-aligned Republicans in Congress overtly criticize him. And final week, he suffered one other fall throughout Republicans’ weekly lunch. He returned trying decidedly frail.

On the similar time, McConnell is making his presence identified. He poured in hundreds of thousands of {dollars} this election cycle to provide Trump and Republicans a majority within the Senate. Senate Minority Whip John Thune, McConnell’s deputy, additionally beat out the MAGA-aligned Rick Scott to change into majority chief after McConnell retires. And whereas McConnell himself is not going to lead Republicans anymore, he will likely be chairman of the Senate Guidelines Committee and the chairman of the subcommittee on protection, which is a perfect job for a overseas coverage hawk like him.

Very similar to Nancy Pelosi, the previous Home speaker who occupied an identical spot within the Home Democratic caucus, McConnell has been utilizing the clout that he has constructed all through his lengthy tenure. On Monday, he revealed an essay in International Affairs warning of the hazards of isolationism.

“To faux that the US can deal with only one risk at a time, that its credibility is divisible, or that it might afford to shrug off faraway chaos as irrelevant is to disregard its international pursuits and its adversaries’ international designs. America is not going to be made nice once more by those that merely wish to handle its decline,” he wrote, extraordinarily pointedly.

Seeing McConnell attempting to stress Trump would possibly shock some. In any case, McConnell holding up a Supreme Court docket seat in 2016 contributed to Trump profitable the presidency the primary time. And his resolution to acquit Trump in 2021 after the January 6 riot did the identical. McConnell additionally ushered by Trump’s main legacy merchandise: a military of conservative jurists all through the federal bench and the US Supreme Court docket.

However he has lengthy seen help for Ukraine as his legacy merchandise. Final week, he delivered an tackle on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, the place he — as soon as once more — warned in regards to the risks of isolationism.

However McConnell’s criticisms of Trump’s method will not be reserved for overseas coverage. He’s additionally come out in protection of vaccines, whilst Trump has nominated more and more anti-vaccine officers to work in his administration. After The New York Occasions reported that Robert F Kennedy Jr’s lawyer Aaron Siri as soon as sought to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, McConnell, a polio survivor, defended vaccinations.

“The polio vaccine has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a horrible illness,” he mentioned. “Efforts to undermine public confidence in confirmed cures will not be simply uninformed — they’re harmful.”

However McConnell faces quite a few headwinds whilst he takes a stand. Conservatives have by no means totally trusted him, with many accusing him of being a “RINO” (Republican in identify solely) due to his willingness to work with Joe Biden and different Democrats. Not like Pelosi, he isn’t a beloved determine among the many base of his celebration. And his phrase doesn’t carry as a lot weight with Republican voters or polticians the way in which Pelosi’s did when she pushed have Biden step apart earlier this yr.

On the similar time, given his superior age and the actual fact he’s unlikely to run for Senate once more, he can attempt to use what affect he has left and his authority inside the Senate Republican convention to drag the GOP again from its worst impulses. Whether or not Republicans will pay attention is one other query altogether.