Trump and congressional Republicans go to war

President Trump and the party he leads are increasingly at each other's throats at a time when lawmakers are back in their districts for recess.

Trump sometimes treats congressional Republicans as an opposition party, tweeting criticism of them and reprimanding them in public settings. Republicans have taken to doing the same — ignoring the president as if his spotlight-grabbing tweets don't exist and rebuking him on key elements of his foreign and domestic priorities.

Their partnership almost resembles a parliamentary-style, ruling coalition rather than the unified, one-party control of government that both sides imagined on Election Day 2016.

"We've certainly had a hard time, here, agreeing on much," said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a prominent Trump critic on the Right. "That's reflected in the dearth of legislation passing."

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, acknowledged that he sometimes feels like the leader of a European governing coalition rather than a majority party.