Trump's second presidency is 'most dangerous period' since second world war, Mitch McConnell says [View all]

Source: The Guardian

The world during Donald Trump’s second presidency has entered a period of danger with “certain similarities to the 30s”, according to Mitch McConnell, the veteran Republican former Senate leader. McConnell made the comments primarily in reference to tariffs and foreign affairs, in a wide-ranging interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader published on Wednesday as he prepares to enter his final year in office. Calling it “the most dangerous period since before world war two”, McConnell was openly critical of the Trump administration’s fixation with trade tariffs, which he likened to the isolationist policies of the US in the 1930s that historians say hastened a global depression that paved the path to conflict.

But while decrying the lack of US preparedness to confront authoritarian regimes abroad, the 83-year-old McConnell – a senator since 1985 and leader of Republicans in the chamber for a record 18 years until he stood down earlier this year, then announced his upcoming retirement – did not discuss the Trump administration’s own moves towards authoritarianism.

He also glossed over his own responsibility for handing Trump so much power. As majority leader, McConnell maneuvered to deny Barack Obama a rightful supreme court pick, and rushed to give Trump another in the final weeks of his first term in 2020. It made McConnell the architect of the current ultraconservative 6-3 majority on a panel that critics say has been overly loyal to Trump, not least last year’s astonishing ruling giving him immunity for criminal acts. In the interview, McConnell said he had been focusing on “defense and foreign policy” in the months since returning to the Senate’s back benches, and had become worried about the direction he believed Trump’s “make America great again” (Maga) trade policies were leading the world. “I think this is the most dangerous period since before world war two. There’s certain similarities right now to the 30s,” he said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/04/trump-dangerous-period-mitch-mcconnell