Karoline Leavitt says Trump’s ‘patience is running out’ with key GOP leader

The friction between President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune over the stalled SAVE America Act ratcheted up another notch Thursday, with the White House putting Republicans on notice that the president's “patience is running out” as the bill stalls out ahead of August recess.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump wants “as much of the SAVE America (Act) passed as possible” before senators head home, referencing comments he'd made a day earlier at a rally in Georgia.

“Look, the president spoke about this directly yesterday, his patience is running out,” Leavitt said during Thursday's White House briefing.

The bill itself would require proof of US citizenship — a birth certificate or passport, for example — to register for federal elections, and would also strip noncitizens from federal voter rolls.

Opponents argue it would do more harm than good, adding red tape that makes registering harder and risks knocking eligible voters off the rolls entirely.

Trump didn't hold back at Wednesday's Georgia rally, calling the Senate “a place that you send things when you want them to die” and telling the crowd to lean on Thune directly.

“Everybody call John Thune. He’s the leader of the Republican party, and tell him to get this stuff approved,” Trump said.

Thune wasn't having it. He pushed back on the criticism, arguing the real problem is math, not motivation — the bill simply doesn't have the votes to clear the Senate — and suggested the White House redirect its energy.

“Instead of, you know, pointing the finger at Republicans, they might think about going after the people who are stopping it on the floor, which is the Democrats,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol Thursday. “And if there are Republicans that they think are gettable, get on the phone. Let’s get them to yes.”

Getting there would take 60 votes to beat a filibuster, which means Democratic support — something Thune has said repeatedly isn't in the cards right now. The other option, killing the filibuster for this one bill, would only need 50 GOP votes, but more than half of the Republican conference won't go along with that either.

Asked about his relationship with the president, Thune told CNN's Manu Raju the two talk “fairly regularly” despite Trump's public grievances, adding, “With me, it’s more on an as-needed basis.”

The back-and-forth exposed real strain between the White House and Senate Republicans over the bill — though GOP senators were quick to close ranks around their leader.

Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana dismissed any talk of replacing Thune outright.

“That’s not something we’re talking about. I’ve heard nobody talk about that,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said he gets why both Trump and Leavitt are frustrated with how slowly things are moving, but he doesn't put the blame on Thune.

“I’ve seen no indication that Senator Thune does not support the SAVE Act — and let me put it more categorical, John Thune supports the SAVE Act, but we have some members who do not,” Kennedy said.

“And that’s why God made votes, and we voted four or five times, and it’s come up short. I’m ready to vote again and take another crack at it through reconciliation, but again, you can’t, we can’t do that unless we take it up,” he added.

Some information for this report was gathered via edition.cnn.com.