text: The Washington media loves Mitch McConnell as a creature of the establishment and hates Donald Trump with a burning passion. So the Washington media has a vested interest in savaging Donald Trump for Luther Strange’s loss, while protecting Mitch McConnell. 
   
   But ask any Roy Moore voter and you’ll find that they believed Donald Trump really wanted Moore, not Strange, in the Senate. They believe, rightly, that Trump was just going through the motions with Strange. Trump was trying to play nice with the establishment in hopes they might get their butts in gear on Obamacare. But he had no real affinity for Luther Strange. His rhetoric was all in Roy Moore’s wheelhouse. 
   
   McConnell poured money into the race for Strange and even blessed Luther Strange deciding at the last minute to start campaigning against Mitch McConnell. Moore made running against McConnell the theme of his campaign. 
   
   Both sides claimed they were going to help Trump against McConnell, but Moore’s base really believed him. Strange’s was just going through the motions. 
   
   It is harder and harder to get honest reporting from DC when it comes to Trump. Reporters just hate him so much. So the DC press corps is celebrating the Roy Moore win as a Trump defeat when the reality and truth are that Moore is the most Trumpian senate candidate in America today. 
   
   His race is not over, but the Democrats will mount little credible opposition. And when Donald Trump comes back to campaign for Roy Moore, Moore’s base will know Trump means it this time. ||||| For Mitch McConnell, Tuesday was about as bad as it could get. 
   
   A vulnerable incumbent senator, Luther Strange of Alabama, lost handily to Roy Moore, who used the Senate leader as his campaign punching bag. McConnell pulled the plug — again — on repealing Obamacare. One of his close allies, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), announced his retirement. 
   
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   And President Donald Trump is back on McConnell’s case, dubbing him “weak” at a private dinner with conservative activists on Monday evening. 
   
   McConnell’s job is in no immediate danger, and he hopes to pivot quickly to tax reform. Yet months of woes are now taking their toll on the GOP leader’s agenda, and his caucus. 
   
   “It’s been a hard summer for all of us,” admitted Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 GOP senator. 
   
   Asked Tuesday whether he was having a “tough day,” McConnell ignored the question. And that was before Corker announced his retirement and Moore won. 
   
   “We haven’t given up on changing the American health care system,” McConnell said. “We’re not going to be able to do that this week, but it still lies ahead of us, and we haven’t given up on that.” 
   
   McConnell’s long-shot bid to save Strange, who had Trump’s backing as well, failed spectacularly as the former Alabama attorney general was trounced by Moore in the deep red state. And that soon could be a daily problem for McConnell. Moore, twice ousted as a judge on the Alabama Supreme Court for defying federal edicts, has openly said he wants to dump McConnell as the top Senate Republican. 
   
   “Judge Roy Moore in the U.S. Senate means the END of Mitch McConnell’s reign as Majority Leader,” Moore vowed in one fundraising pitch. Moore now faces Democrat Doug Jones in the Dec. 12 general election. 
   
   Moore’s win came just hours after McConnell, faced with unwavering opposition from a trio of his GOP colleagues, was forced to ditch the latest GOP proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare. McConnell’s choices were grim: Hold another failed vote, or concede another defeat. 
   
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   McConnell chose to call it quits and perhaps try again next year. Yet it was another embarrassing setback in McConnell’s failed months-long effort to overturn the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and it came at an even heavier price this time — more problems for McConnell from the occupant of the Oval Office. 
   
   Trump spent much of August publicly bashing McConnell but stopped after the two held a private meeting several weeks ago. But now the president is bad-mouthing the Senate leader again. 
   
   During a dinner with conservative activists on Monday night at the White House, Trump laid into McConnell, according to two attendees. Trump told the activists that McConnell was “weak” because he couldn’t pass the GOP health care plan, and the president complained at length about how Republicans had failed him on the issue, while asking the activists what they should do next. 
   
   Trump added that he was disappointed in McConnell for not changing the Senate filibuster rule so that only 51 votes are needed to pass legislation, also dubbing McConnell’s resistance to the idea as “weak.” That criticism does not ring true to Senate Republicans, given that Democrats have barely been able to use the filibuster due to McConnell mostly holding party-line votes. 
   
   A McConnell spokesman declined to comment. 
   
   A person briefed on the meeting noted Trump took aim at far more than McConnell during the meeting, distancing himself from Strange and whacking Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as well. Trump called McCain “disgraceful” on health care and mocked his thumbs-down gesture on the Senate floor against a GOP proposal in July, complete with a facial expression, attendees said. 
   
   After the race was called Tuesday, McConnell vowed to support Moore in the general election despite the candidate’s opposition to him personally. 
   
   “He ran a spirited campaign centered around a dissatisfaction with the progress made in Washington. I share that frustration,” McConnell said of Moore in a statement. “Senate Republicans will be as committed to keeping Alabama’s Senate seat in Republican hands with Roy Moore as we were with Luther Strange.” 
   
   McConnell’s support in the Republican Conference remains solid despite what Trump, Moore and former Trump aide Steve Bannon say about him. Bannon has launched a crusade against the Senate leader and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Ohio) since leaving the White House. 
   
   “It’s not even a close question there,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said of McConnell’s position. “It’s not easy being majority leader, which is why many people choose not to run for it.” 
   
   The way to put an end to anti-McConnell challengers, Cornyn said, is “you win. Really, it’s about that simple.” 
   
   After ushering through the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, McConnell has found himself in a box. Trump will receive the lion’s share of credit for legislative victories that McConnell or Ryan engineer, but the president has made clear he’ll blame the GOP leaders when bills falter. 
   
   Trump might turn to Democrats again in search of victories — as he did earlier this month to put off a fight over the budget and debt ceiling — which would again test McConnell and Ryan’s loyalty to the president. 
   
   Some Republicans said that at least in the case of Obamacare, McConnell was not to blame for the failure of the proposal pushed by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.). 
   
   “The whole health care thing right now was sort of inspired by Graham and Cassidy, and the president, who kept it alive. I don’t think Mitch has much ownership other than to try to see if there’s a path forward,” Thune said. 
   
   Thune added that Strange’s situation in Alabama was a “unique set of circumstances. I think everybody in a lot of these places, particularly primary voters, want to send a message to Washington.” 
   
   Strange was appointed to the seat by former Republican Gov. Robert Bentley, who later resigned in a sex scandal. Strange’s appointment didn’t sit well with Alabama voters. The Senate Leadership Fund, a pro-McConnell super PAC, dumped $9 million into the race in a bid to derail Moore, but he proved far too strong. And Trump’s endorsement of Strange proved to be too little, too late. 
   
   “What happens today in Alabama with Luther Strange has nothing to do with Mitch McConnell. It has everything to do with Alabama,” Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said before the results were tallied. 
   
   Personal loyalty to McConnell remains high among his colleagues. They remember him as a two-term chairman of the NRSC. He led the fight against former President Barack Obama for eight years. And he got Gorsuch onto the Supreme Court, which is Trump’s only real win in Congress so far. 
   
   When it comes to who to blame for a difficult year with just a 52-seat majority, McConnell’s colleagues refuse to point to the majority leader as the source of the problem. They criticize each other, not McConnell. 
   
   “You can only fight with the troops that you’ve got,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said of McConnell’s predicament. ||||| Why it matters: A funding freeze could be seen as a slap against the organization — which the U.S. and Israel consider to be biased against Israel and too politicized — and an attempt to pressure the Palestinians to return to peace talks with Israel. But a State Department official said that the fact the money wasn't transferred on Jan. 1 doesn't mean it was frozen. "There are still deliberations taking place, and we have until mid January to decide what we are going to do,” the official said. 
   
   The Trump administration has frozen $125 million in funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, according to three Western diplomats who were informed of the move. They said the funding, one third of the annual U.S. donations to the agency, was supposed to be transferred by Jan. 1 but was withheld. 
   
   The details: The diplomats, who asked to speak on conditions of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the funding was frozen until the Trump administration finishes its review of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority. 
   
   The move comes after the Palestinian Authority suspended their contacts with the Trump administration in response to its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A senior White House official said no decision have been made yet, but confirmed that a review of the U.S. assistance to the Palestinians is underway "in light of the Palestinians' recent conduct." 
   
   The diplomats added that U.S. officials told U.N. officials in the last two days that President Trump is considering totally cutting the part of the funding which was frozen, and is even considering cutting up to $180 million, which amounts to half of the U.S. funding to UNRWA. 
   
   The impact: The Western diplomats said freezing or cutting of such a big part of the U.S. funding would be catastrophic for the organization, would hamper its work and might lead to negative consequences for the Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon. 
   
   U.N. secretary general António Guterres has spoken with senior U.S. official about the UNRWA funding and also consulted with foreign ministers from other donor countries, according to the diplomats. 
   
   The Israeli security establishment and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories — the Israeli organization that oversees government activities in the West Bank and Gaza — are concerned about possible freezing or cutting of U.S. funding to UNRWA, fearing the escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 
   
   “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is complicated enough and harming UNRWA funding will only make it more complicated," a senior Israeli security official told me. 
   
   What we're hearing: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not enthusiastic about the cutting of U.S. funding to UNRWA, but is politically pressed by conservative ministers in his cabinet and by the fact he can't be more dovish on the Palestinian issue than President Trump. 
   
   Officials in the prime minister's office told diplomats from several western countries that Israel does not object to the cutting of U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority, but prefers that the U.S. doesn't cut funding to UNRWA due to the fact it also serves Israeli security interests. 
   
   A senior Israeli official told me Netanyahu is in touch with the White House on the UNRWA funding issue, and conveyed the message that Israel prefers “gradual disengagement" with UNRWA by the U.S. and not a big funding cut. 
   
   The prime minister's office said in a statement: "Netanyahu supports President Trump's critical attitude towards UNRWA and believes practical steps need to be taken in order to change the fact that UNRWA is being used to entrench the Palestinian refugee problem instead of solving it."
target: – As has been widely noted, Mitch McConnell had a truly awful Tuesday. The Senate majority leader had to surrender on ObamaCare repeal, ally Bob Corker announced he was retiring, and, perhaps worst of all, the Senate candidate that McConnell strongly backed in Alabama got trounced by one backed by the Steve Bannon contingent. Just how bad is it for McConnell? Here's a look at coverage: Mocked by Trump: The president has taken to doing physical impressions of a slump-shouldered McConnell, reports Axios. Trump also reportedly called out McConnell as "weak" at a dinner with conservative activists, reports Politico. On the wane: McConnell has gone from "brilliant tactician" to looking vulnerable after the defeats this week, reports the New York Times. If the GOP fails to get tax reform passed this year, his post as majority leader could be in jeopardy—especially with populist insurgents backed by Bannon looking to win more seats. No immediate danger: Both Politico and the Times say McConnell retains rock-solid support in the Republican Conference and thus is not in any immediate peril. Much of that support is based on his formidable fundraising skills on behalf of Senate Republicans. Beware the midterms: In a piece subtitled, "Is the Senate Leader Losing His Grip on the GOP?," Abigail Tracy at Vanity Fair notes that midterm elections in general are often unkind to the party in power: "With the GOP in the midst of an ideological schism, McConnell’s faction could be headed for a reckoning." Indeed, Tuesday's triple whammy "just shows how weak the Republican establishment is right now," writes Harry Enten at FiveThirtyEight. Boehner's fate? McConnell is willing to take all the criticism coming from conservatives over the ObamaCare fail, especially if it protects rank-and-file Republicans, per an analysis at the Washington Post. "But one thing that could hamper McConnell’s long-term standing would be if he became a real albatross to his own incumbents in primary elections ahead," writes Paul Kane. Fear of that played a role in John Boehner's resignation as House speaker two years ago. False narrative: Many in the media are portraying the Alabama results as a loss for Trump, but winner Roy Moore is decidedly Trumpian, writes Erick Erickson at the Resurgent. No, this was all about McConnell—in fact, Moore made running against him "the theme of his campaign."