Mitch McConnell’s a lot of things, but naive isn’t one of them.

And naive right now would be to persist in the fantasy that there’s anything left of the Republican party as Americans came to understand and define it from Ronald Reagan forward. That party’s nearly as dead as the Gipper himself, and nobody knows that better than the Senate’s self-proclaimed “grim reaper.”

“I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them,” McConnell said Wednesday, announcing that although he plans to remain in the chamber he’s worked so hard to paralyze through the end of his term, he won’t stand for the Republican leadership after the election.

“Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular time,” McConnell went on, explaining his decision which, despite not coming as a surprise, nevertheless counts as a watershed of sorts. McConnell’s abdication comes less than three months after Kevin McCarthy quit the House. Although both men managed through Donald Trump’s presidency, neither proved especially adept at curbing the GOP’s rightward lurch.

That latter assessment would’ve been nonsensical in the context of pre-Trump McConnell and McCarthy who, between them, were pretty far to the right on most key issues, if not all them. But “right” means something different now. Although Trumpism retains some tenets of Republicanism, overlap is harder to come by than it was just a couple of years ago. Shared principles are mostly confined to supply-side economic “reforms,” and specifically tax cuts. Outside of that, Trumpism doesn’t have a lot in common with GOP orthodoxy, especially not on matters of foreign policy. That’s where McConnell apparently saw a chasm too wide to bridge.

McConnell supports additional aid to Ukraine and generally espouses the notion that US national security is synonymous with America’s post-War global police role, wherein “maintaining a rules-based world order” is a euphemism for military interventions and blowing things up more generally. Credit where it’s due: Trump’s unequivocally right to suggest the US should dial it back in that regard. The issue in 2024 is that Trump may not be a completely unbiased observer when it comes to the war in Ukraine. As such, there are legitimate questions about whether the Trump wing’s reluctance to sign off on additional aid to Kyiv might be a reflection of ulterior motives.

“Moscow” memes aside, McConnell’s uncomfortable with that situation. He’s already the longest-serving Senate leader in US history. Mission accomplished there. By announcing that he won’t stand for leader again, he’s effectively robbed the Trump wing of leverage: He no longer needs to court favor among the party’s extremist elements. Those elements are mercifully fewer in the Senate, but they’re present, and McConnell doesn’t have to pander to them now. On Ukraine or on anything else.

Please, I implore readers: Don’t misconstrue my message. I’m not suggesting that Mitch McConnell’s any sort of hero, nor that he’s made a late-career choice to do some good for the country or the world. You won’t find a more ardent Mitch McConnell critic than me. All I’m saying is precisely what Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday in remarks to The New York Times: “It is probably the case that on his way toward retirement, he’s going to work as hard as he can to make sure that the national security bill gets over the finish line in the House and the Senate to President Biden’s desk.”

McConnell suffered several high-profile public lapses in recent months. For lack of a medical degree, all I can say about those incidents is that Mitch simply stopped working mid-sentence and had to be reset. In all likelihood, whatever’s behind those episodes would’ve forced McConnell out of the leadership role sooner rather than later anyway, but his preemptive announcement was most notable, in my view, for representing the GOP’s final capitulation to Trump.

McConnell offered an appeal of sorts on Wednesday to the party he once controlled with adroit Machiavellian guile. “I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed,” he said.