Former President Donald Trump mocked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s endorsement at a campaign rally in North Carolina, labeling it a “painful day” for the senator on Sunday.

McConnell, who has led the Republican Party in the US Senate since 2007, has notably clashed with Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, after the 2020 election. In private, McConnell called Trump “stupid” and “despicable,” according to a biography of the senator published last week, while publicly saying Trump was “practically and morally responsible for inciting” the Capitol riot in the US Capitol. on January 6, 2021.

Meanwhile, Trump also hit McConnell after his election loss, claiming the senator was “hanging by a thread.”

Ultimately, McConnell put his concerns aside and endorsed Trump in the 2024 election against Vice President Kamala Harris, rather than opposing the former president as some high-profile Republicans have done throughout the cycle. McConnell had pledged to support the Republican nominee “regardless of who it is” and that Trump “deserved the nomination.”

At a campaign rally in Kinston, North Carolina, on Sunday, just days before Election Day, Trump mocked the endorsement, saying it “must have been a painful day in his life.”

“Hopefully we can get rid of Mitch McConnell soon. Can you believe he supported me? Boy, that must have been a painful day in his life. Every time I think about it, he didn’t have to do that. He provided the necessary votes. What a shame,” Trump said.

Newsweek has contacted Trump’s campaign and McConnell’s office via email for comment.

Trump’s comments come as McConnell is set to leave his seat in January 2027 after nearly four decades, but will step down from his role as Republican Senate leader this month.

Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, and Senator John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, have emerged as the front-runners to replace McConnell as the Republican leader in the Senate.

McConnell is the longest-serving Senate leader in American history. He served as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021, when Democrats took back control of the legislature.

Political analysts who spoke earlier Newsweek remain largely uninterested by Cornyn and Thune’s choices, finding “conventional” options but unable to name alternatives that could play a role in the match. Only Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, is mentioned as a third option, but most did not focus on him as a serious candidate.

Gregory Koger, political scientist and professor of political science at the University of Miami, said this earlier Newsweek that the election to replace McConnell “would prove critical to the future of the Senate as a legislative body.”

“The new leader can reconnect the Republican Party’s involvement in the Senate with the legislative process in an effort to pass bipartisan legislation that is consistent with conservative principles in the national interest,” Koger said. “Or Senate Republicans can continue to paralyze the House so that decision-making power flows to the executive and judiciary.”

Jason Cabel Roe, a political and communications strategist with more than three decades of experience in campaigns at all levels of government, called McConnell “one of a kind” who “cannot be replaced” because of his “mastery of the legislative process, his ability to navigate” the Byzantine culture of the Senate and its understanding of the caucus.”

He added: “I think it will come down to who the caucus thinks can effectively co-exist with President Trump, if he wins, or who will be better prepared to stop a Harris agenda, if she wins.”