WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump said Monday he can understand why his former top adviser Steve Bannon called for "a season of war" on the GOP establishment.
"I'm not going to blame myself. I'll be honest, they are not getting the job done," Trump told reporters in the White House before a scheduled lunch with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Vice President Mike Pence.
"I can understand where Steve Bannon is coming from," Trump said.
Trump is frustrated that Republican senators have been unable to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act or get traction on a tax cut bill, among other priorities in Trump's agenda.
"There are some Republicans, frankly, that should be ashamed of themselves," Trump said. "They really, really disappointed us."
Since Bannon was pushed out of his job as chief strategist at the White House in August, he has taken aim at McConnell and other Republican senators who haven't given a full-throated defense of Trump's agenda.
"Yeah, Mitch, the donors are not happy. They've all left you. We've cut your oxygen off," Bannon said Saturday during a speech to religious conservatives at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
"There's a time and season for everything, and right now it's a season of war against a GOP establishment," Bannon said.
