President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may be in trouble if he doesn’t deliver on such top administration items such as tax reform, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and an overhaul of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
Asked by reporters at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club whether McConnell should step aside from his leadership post, Trump said, “You can ask me that question” if McConnell fails to make sufficient progress on the president’s agenda.
“Mitch, let’s get to work and let’s get it done,” Trump said.
“They lost by one vote,” he added, referring to last month’s failed Senate effort to repeal Obamacare. “For a thing like that to happen is a disgrace.”
Trump has lashed out at McConnell several times this week while on a “working vacation” in New Jersey. Earlier in the day, the president implored the Kentucky lawmaker to “get back to work” and pass legislation on tax reform and infrastructure spending.
On Wednesday, Trump rebuked McConnell’s claim that the president had been overly optimistic about the ease with which Congress could enact major legislation.
“Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don’t think so,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?”
McConnell has served as head of Senate Republicans since early 2007, first as minority leader and then as majority leader after the GOP won control of the chamber in the 2014 elections.