The battle between President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell keeps escalating, with the two leaders reportedly getting into heated phone calls earlier this month about how to move a successful Republican agenda on Capitol Hill. Now, they aren't speaking.
The relationship between President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has disintegrated to the point that they have not spoken to each other in weeks, and Mr. McConnell has privately expressed uncertainty that Mr. Trump will be able to salvage his administration after a series of summer crises.
What was once an uneasy governing alliance has curdled into a feud of mutual resentment and sometimes outright hostility, complicated by the position of Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine L. Chao, in Mr. Trump’s cabinet, according to more than a dozen people briefed on their imperiled partnership. Angry phone calls and private badmouthing have devolved into open conflict, with the president threatening to oppose Republican senators who cross him, and Mr. McConnell mobilizing to their defense.
But according to new polling, Trump is trouncing McConnell in his home state of Kentucky and overwhelmingly beats the majority leader on approval from voters.
A Public Policy Polling survey found just 18 percent of respondents approve of the job McConnell is doing, compared with 74 percent who disapprove.
President Trump has an approval rating of 60 percent in Kentucky. Slightly more than one-third of respondents, 36 percent, disapprove of the job the president is doing.
During a town hall meeting in the Blue Grass State at the start of the August recess, McConnell said Trump had "excessive expectations" about how quickly legislation should move after an Obamacare repeal bill failed in the Senate by a single vote.
The remarks prompted Trump to respond on Twitter, where he reminded McConnell of the GOP's long held promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, which was made far before Trump ever took office.
Senator Mitch McConnell said I had "excessive expectations," but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017
The relationship has been on ice ever since.