Before he announces his all but official 2024 presidential campaign run, former President Donald Trump vows to work to reform the leadership of the Republican Party.
"We have some great Republicans, and we have some bad ones," Trump told Tuesday's "The Michael Savage Show" podcast, pointing first and foremost in the latter category at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
"Mitch is a bad leader; he always has been," Trump added to host Michael Savage in an exclusive interview. "I could have told you that a long time ago."
Trump pointed to the obstruction in getting the border wall going, a signature promise in the initial 2016 presidential campaign, which then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell was a monkey wrench in.
"We would have had the wall a lot sooner if I didn't have the problem of him, and Paul Ryan was a problem," Trump continued. "They said, 'oh, we'll get it next year.
"Next year came along and they didn't produce it, and I had to get it through all sorts of legal challenges. It took me 2 1/2 years of winning lawsuits."
But, despite mainstream media speculation Trump might need to run as a third-party candidate in a future presidential election, Trump squarely believes in the strength and depth of the GOP outside of a few "bad ones," saying a change in leadership can make the GOP great again – "amazing" even.
"The Republicans, we do have great people also, and I will say if we had leadership, this party would be amazing," Trump concluded.
"But Mitch is not a good leader; he's just a survivor. He's a good survivor, but he's not a good leader."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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