WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump fired back at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday for saying the president has unrealistic expectations about how things get done in Washington.
“Senator Mitch McConnell said I had 'excessive expectations,' but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?” Trump tweeted, referring to the longtime GOP promise to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
Trump’s response came shortly after his social media director, Dan Scavino Jr., blasted McConnell’s comments as “more excuses.”
The president resumed his criticisms of McConnell on Thursday morning when he tweeted, "Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn't get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!"
Congress left for a five-week recess last week after failing to pass a partial repeal of Obamacare. The failure to pass the legislation was an embarrassment for both Trump and congressional Republicans.
"Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and, I think, had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process," McConnell told a Rotary Group in northern Kentucky on Monday.
"And so, part of the reason people feel like we’re under performing is because too many kind of artificial deadlines, unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating, may not have been fully understood," McConnell added.
Related: McConnell Hits Trump's 'Excessive Expectations'
The comments were some of the sharpest the Kentucky Republican has had for the president. The two leaders have largely remained united throughout Trump’s first six months in office.
The one area McConnell has criticized the president for is his use of Twitter, something he repeated his speech Monday.
"I’ve been, and I will be again today, not a fan of tweeting, and I’ve said that to him privately, and other events publicly," he said. "I think it would be helpful if the president was a little more on message."
