Senate Republicans mocked for presenting Trump with award on weekend he slammed GOP leadership in speech

Twitter users describe presentation of ‘embarrassing’ ‘participation prize’ as ‘beyond parody’

The National Republican Senatorial Committee gave Donald Trump its inaugural Champion for Freedom Award, even as the former president called party leader Mitch McConnell “a dumb son of a b****” in a speech over the weekend.

NRSC chairman Florida Senator Rick Scott was photographed presenting Mr Trump with the award, a small bowl, at the Mar-a-Lago Club.

A statement from the group said that the award is given to “conservative leaders who have worked tirelessly to create good jobs, protect the values that make our country great, and stop the Democrats’ socialist agenda”.

Tweeting out the photo of the pair of them, with Mr Trump wearing golfing attire and a red MAGA hat, Mr Scott said that the former president had “fought for American workers, secured the border, and protected our constitutional rights”.

Replies to the tweet were not positive.

Writer Michael Salfino tweeted: “Also led a riot of the Capitol with the intention of murdering his Vice President of the United States. Good show!”

Jennifer Rubin, an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, wrote: “What a disgusting joke.”

Others posted that the award was “embarrassing”, questioned if it was satire, asked if it was a “participation prize”, referred to the bowl as a “treason trophy”, and said the whole situation was “beyond parody”.

Tim Miller of Bulwark Online, formerly of Republican Voters Against Trump, wrote: “The NRSC made up a new award, bought a down market brass bowl from World Market and presented it to Donald Trump this weekend as if he were the winner of a c-list pro-am golf tournament.”

One Twitter response was a screenshot from an episode of The Simpsons showing a sign announcing the “First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence” — Mr Burns being the villainous billionaire owner of the town’s nuclear plant in the show.

On Saturday night Mr Trump spoke at a dinner for Republican donors and was introduced by RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as the “leader of our party”, according to attendees. Ms McDaniel also said he was key to taking back the House and the Senate.

Mr Trump took to the stage and said he was going to discard his “boring” speech and “wing it”. In his remarks he disparaged his former vice president Mike Pence as well as Senate Minority Leader McConnell for allowing his election defeat to be certified on 6 January.

“If that were [Democrat senate majority leader Chuck Schumer] instead of this dumb son of a b**** Mitch McConnell they would never allow it to happen. They would have fought it,” he said, according to a report in the Washington Post. He also reportedly called his former ally “a stone-cold loser”.

Mr Trump did not discuss his plans for the future at any length during his speech, instead focusing on his years in office.

He reportedly expressed confidence that a Republican will win the presidency in 2024, but did not say whether or not he will run himself.

The former president has previously told Fox News that he will save such a decision until after the 2022 midterm elections.

Last week Mr Trump was ridiculed for having a small statue of himself on a side table in his office. Perhaps the bowl can go next to that.