President Trump on Wednesday took a shot at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), pointedly asking on Twitter why congressional Republicans had failed after seven years of promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
“Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don't think so,” Trump wrote. “After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?”
Trump's tweet was sent from Bedminster, N.J., where he is on a 17-day working vacation at his private golf club.
The back-and-forth was the latest sign of strained relations between Trump and Republicans in Congress, who have had few victories since January, despite the GOP's control of the White House and both the House and Senate.
Since the collapse of a health-care bill, Trump has belittled GOP senators as looking like "fools" and suggested they change the chamber's rules to make it easier to pass bills.
In an earlier tweet Wednesday, Dan Scavino Jr., the White House social media director, also took aim at McConnell.
“More excuses,” wrote Scavino, an outspoken Trump loyalist. “@SenateMajLdr must have needed another 4 years — in addition to the 7 years — to repeal and replace Obamacare.....”
More excuses. @SenateMajLdr must have needed another 4 years - in addition to the 7 years -- to repeal and replace Obamacare..... https://t.co/6FOVBm6BQU
— Dan Scavino Jr.🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) August 9, 2017
In his remarks on Monday to the Rotary Club of Florence, Ky., McConnell said, “Our new president had of course not been in this line of work before.” He added: “I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.”
McConnell said people think Congress is underperforming partly because “artificial deadlines, unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating, may not have been fully understood.”