Now, unshackled from those responsibilities and likely headed for the chamber’s exit doors, the 82-year-old is increasingly irking his GOP colleagues while offering Democrats welcomed surprises after bucking a high-profile trio of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

McConnell’s votes against three of Trump’s choices are more than any other Republican senator. In two instances this week, he was the lone Republican to side with all Democrats against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. McConnell also opposed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, along with centrist Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

“I’m a little surprised but more sad for him having led and garnered a loyal support group of Republicans as leader and perhaps not feeling the obligation to be as loyal to the team once he wasn’t the leader,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said.

Democrats, many of whom loathe McConnell for his lasting conservative imprint on the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court, are pleasantly surprised by McConnell’s emerging resistance.

“To me, it’s not a political strategy. That’s a guy that’s at the end of his career and facing significant issues, and I want the very best for him, that he’s just able to vote his conscience on these kinds of things,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told the Washington Examiner in the Capitol as he and McConnell, who uses a wheelchair following his latest fall, passed by one another. “I just think it’s a dude that doesn’t have to give a f*** at this point because he’s not running for reelection.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said McConnell’s votes were evidence he “is not afraid of anyone.”

“I think it’s clear that Mitch McConnell doesn’t believe that he owes anything to anyone except the people of Kentucky. And that’s how he votes,” Warren said.

McConnell has not stated his reelection plans for next year, but it’s widely expected he will retire. He’s faced increasing health problems in recent years, including several falls and episodes of freezing up midsentence for extended periods. He turns 83 next week.

Notably, McConnell has otherwise been largely supportive of Trump’s second-term agenda and declined to extend his mutiny beyond nominees. He’s so far voted to confirm more than a dozen other Trump nominees who required Senate approval.

McConnell, a victim of childhood polio, took issue with Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism.

“I will not condone the relitigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” he said in a statement on his vote.

In previous statements, McConnell assailed Gabbard as an unqualified nominee with a history of “alarming lapses in judgment.” He painted Hegseth as an equally ill-equipped candidate, stating that a “mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough.”

Still, McConnell’s GOP colleagues have largely refrained from being overly critical of his rebellious streak. McConnell’s dissention has not been the deciding vote on any nominees, and there’s an assumption among Republicans that McConnell will finally end his four-decade reign as a Kentucky senator.  

“I think he feels unrestrained,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said. “He gets to be a rank-and-file member. He’s probably voting his conscience. As a leadership guy, you have to be sort of more team-oriented.”

One of his longtime conservative critics, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), expressed little surprise toward McConnell’s voting habits and suggested it was related to his dislike for Trump.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Hawley said. “He doesn’t like Trump.”

Despite developing an icy relationship after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, McConnell ultimately endorsed Trump last year. But following McConnell’s latest “no” vote against Kennedy on Thursday, Trump at the White House offered a not-so-subtle reminder that their mutual distaste for one another persisted.

The president suggested McConnell was never “equipped mentally” to be GOP leader, that he bought loyalty from Republicans by fundraising for them, and that the vote against Kennedy was actually about “voting against me.”

“I don’t know anything about he had polio,” Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office of the senator’s childhood illness. “I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader. He knows that. He voted against [Kennedy] and votes against almost everything. He’s a very bitter guy, and we have a very strong party, and he’s almost not even really a very powerful member.”

Another factor of the less critical approach from Republican senators is that McConnell has kept Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and his leadership team apprised of his position before votes, according to sources familiar with the matter.  

“Each of us has the opportunity, as long as we let leadership know what our concerns are, has the opportunity to make up our own minds,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said. “He’s doing that.”