--- title: Donald Trump Hits Back at Mitch McConnell After Criticism description: President Trump targeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over criticism of his "excessive expectations" for his legislative agenda canonical: https://time.com/4894073/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-expectations/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-09T19:08:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:55:27.063Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Hits Back at Mitch McConnell After Criticism og:description: "After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?" og:url: https://time.com/4894073/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-expectations/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt056d688e4140757d/6988d91322fb851fe4e2254a/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Donald Trump Meets with House and Senate Leadership og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Hits Back at Mitch McConnell After Criticism twitter:description: "After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt056d688e4140757d/6988d91322fb851fe4e2254a/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Fired Back at Mitch McConnell for Criticizing His 'Excessive Expectations'  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 9, 2017 7:08 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell looks on during a meeting with House and Senate leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, on June 6, 2017. President Donald Trump speaks as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell looks on during a meeting with House and Senate leadership in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, on June 6, 2017.Olivier Douliery— Pool/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 9, 2017 7:08 PM UTC President Trump on Wednesday [targeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895347654431035393) Republican Senate Majority Leader [Mitch McConnell](http://time.com/4864414/health-care-bill-mitch-mcconnell-reputation/) for criticizing his “excessive expectations” when it comes to making progress on his legislative agenda. “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](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895347654431035393) Tuesday afternoon, referencing the [recent failure](http://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/) of Senate Republicans’ bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The tweet came after [McConnell spoke](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-majority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-vents-trumps-excessive/story?id=49093130) at a Rotary Club event in Kentucky on Monday and expressed frustration over “artificial deadlines” set by the Trump Administration. “Our new president has, of course, not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process,” McConnell said at the event. “So part of the reason I think people feel like we’re underperforming is because too many artificial deadlines—unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating—may not have been fully understood.” The two Republican leaders have publicly disagreed in recent months about how to handle the legislative gridlock that has stalled Trump’s agenda. Trump has [pressed](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869553853750013953?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref%5Furl=http%3A%2F%2Ftalkingpointsmemo.com%2Flivewire%2Ftrump-tweets-again-legislative-filibuster) McConnell to [change](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891263843908947969) longstanding Senate rules that require 60 votes to end a filibuster, saying Senate Republicans [“look like fools”](http://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/) for failing to pass the “skinny” repeal of Obamacare. But McConnell said he would not pursue a rule change. “There are not the votes in the Senate, as I’ve said repeatedly to the president and to all of you, to change the rules of the Senate,” he said last week. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4894073/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-expectations/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4894073/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-expectations/"},"headline":"President Trump Fired Back at Mitch McConnell for Criticizing His 'Excessive Expectations'","datePublished":"2017-08-09T19:08:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:55:27.063Z","description":"\"After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?\"","url":"https://time.com/4894073/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-expectations/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Senate","Congress","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt056d688e4140757d/6988d91322fb851fe4e2254a/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt056d688e4140757d/6988d91322fb851fe4e2254a/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Donald Trump Meets with House and Senate Leadership","caption":"President Donald Trump Meets with House and Senate Leadership","creditText":"Olivier Douliery— Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4894073/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell-expectations/","name":"President Trump Fired Back at Mitch McConnell for Criticizing His 'Excessive Expectations'"}}]}] ```