NPR

Trump's Fractured Relationship With Congress Causes GOP Dread

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are trying to show unity, while Trump is sowing division that could doom the party's fall agenda.
President Trump speaks as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., looks on during a meeting with House and Senate leadership at the White House in June.

Escalating tension between Capitol Hill and the White House is threatening the GOP's legislative agenda and testing the bonds of party unity under the Trump administration.

An unscripted and angry President Trump unloaded on Congress at a campaign rally in Phoenix, leaving lawmakers increasingly apprehensive about the party's ambitious fall agenda that includes an overhaul of the entire federal tax code.

Instead of hammering that message, the president used his bully pulpit to criticize Republicans for failing to pass a long-promised health care bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

"Obamacare is a disaster and think — think! We were just one vote

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