Trump has been simmering with frustration over what one senior White House official dubbed the “molasses-like” pace of Kavanaugh’s confirmation in the Senate, where the president has also long blamed Republican leaders with slow-walking his border wall and other key agenda items.

Despite their public projections of unity, Trump and his aides behind the scenes see Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) as having been too accommodating to Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who has alleged that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when he was 17, by delaying her hearing until Thursday. The president has said that Republicans are too easily manipulated by Democrats, that he is sick of Ford’s attorneys getting their way and that he does not believe her accusations are credible, according to a Republican briefed on Trump’s private comments…

In private talks, Trump has targeted McConnell and Grassley for criticism, complaining that they have not been forceful enough in speeding up the process and have been too deferential to Ford’s attorneys, according to two people familiar with Trump’s concerns. McConnell (R-Ky.) — who delivered a vigorous defense of Kavanaugh in a speech on the Senate floor Monday — has tried to explain to the president that he, too, is eager to hold a vote but that he first needs to ensure that the nomination has the majority support to pass the Senate.