McConnell praises Trump's 2024 campaign

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has gone from criticizing the Republicans' campaigning to now praising it. 

Fox News reports that McConnell recently congratulated former President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans on their 2024 election victories.

This comes after McConnell, in previous years - including in 2020 - was highly critical of Trump and those who followed in Trump's footsteps.

The question, of course, is what exactly has changed? Is the answer simply that Trump and his fellow Republicans won, and in a big way? We'll leave that for you to decide.

McConnell weighs in

The Senate minority leader gave his take on the 2024 elections, including the 2024 presidential election, during a press briefing on Wednesday.

There, he said that it is "certainly a happy day for the GOP."

This is in light of the fact that Trump not only won the 2024 presidential election but won in a dominating victory. It is also in light of the fact that Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate, and in light of the fact that Republicans, at the time of this writing, are the favorites to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Regarding Trump's victory, McConnell said, "What he's accomplished has not been done, as all of you know, since [former President] Grover Cleveland, which was a while back."

"I also want to commend the Trump campaign for running a sharper operation this time," he added, while calling particular attention to Trump's campaign managers.

Looking forward

One of the big questions going forward is who is going to be leading the U.S. Senate. What we know for sure is that it will not be McConnell.

McConnell announced in February of this year that he will be stepping down as the leader of Senate Republicans. This came after bad blood developed between him and Trump, as well as between McConnell and pro-Trump Republicans.

There is expected to be a hotly contested battle for McConnell's leadership position. Some names being mentioned are Sens. John Thune (S.D.) and John Cornyn (Texas). If either is selected, we would probably see a continuation of McConnell-like leadership.

Pro-Trump Republicans, no doubt, will be looking to head in a different direction, such as by choosing U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).

Regardless of who the Republicans pick to lead the Senate, the good news is that, with all their election victories, the GOP will have control over the federal government for at least two years, until the 2026 midterm elections.