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Trump: I still have confidence in McConnell

By LOUIS NELSON

President Donald Trump still has confidence in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the president told Fox News Wednesday, as the White House and Congress set out to accomplish another policy goal — tax reform — in the wake of a failed bid to overhaul health care.

“I do. I mean, look, I've dealt with Mitch for a long time,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that was broadcast Thursday in response to a question about whether he still has confidence in McConnell (R-Ky.). “Look, I really like all of these people. I think they're terrific people.”

Trump and McConnell, ostensibly allies on Republicans’ conservative policy agenda, have clashed at times, most recently this week when the president reportedly called the majority leader “weak” at a Monday night dinner with conservative activists.

The Trump-McConnell feud intensified over the summer, when the president lashed out at the majority leader on Twitter multiple times over the Senate’s failure to pass a bill to to repeal and replace Obamacare, a measure that would have required the support of just 50 senators from the majority party.

McConnell shot back that Trump had set early timelines and that his inexperience in politics had led him to have “excessive expectations” about how quickly policy goals can be accomplished.

But while the president suggested that his and McConnell’s relationship was fine, Trump also said the majority leader must do away with the Senate’s filibuster rules, something McConnell has sworn he will never do, in order to help move the president’s legislative agenda through Congress.

“I think it's just a disaster for the Republican Party, because it means you need 60 votes on most pieces of legislation and you're not going to get it.” Trump said, reiterating a demand he’s made online multiple times. “They want to keep this horrible filibuster rule, which says basically, you need 60. So that means you need eight Democrats to get something approved. And you're not going to get that. So they have to get rid of the filibuster rule.”