When President Donald Trump called Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky to lobby him for his vote on the Senate GOP's health care bill, his pitch was pure Trumpian.
"We need to win!" the president told his former 2016 campaign rival, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
Paul appreciated the upbeat conversation but was keenly aware that while Trump was cheerleading the legislative effort, it was his home-state colleague, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was holding the cards on specifics.
"This is all on Senate leadership. The White House is not involved in exact details," an aide to one GOP senator says.
Paul then appeared on CNN to complain his offerings of changes were being virtually ignored.
"So far the Senate leadership is not negotiating with our office," Paul told the cable news network on Monday. "I'm trying to negotiate with the president, but really the president is going to have to tell leadership it's going to have to negotiate with some of us who don't see this bill as being good for the country."
On Tuesday morning, Paul was offered an invitation to the White House to air his grievances in person to the president. The meeting illustrated both the lengths and limitations of Trump's influence as he attempts to cobble together a narrow legislative victory that's looking like a heavier lift by the day.
Indeed, not long afterward, it was McConnell who pulled the plug on holding a vote this week, bowing to the harsh reality of members in a bitterly divided Republican conference who are considerably wary if not wholly opposed to the current version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act aimed at replacing the law known as Obamacare.
"Legislation of this complexity almost always takes longer than anybody else would hope," a stone-faced McConnell told a bank of reporters and television cameras inside the Capitol. He looked neither assured nor concerned; he looked like his quintessential self.
The president responded by inviting the full 52-member GOP caucus to the White House for an afternoon meeting that featured some venting. And Trump's public pitch wasn't exactly a rallying cry. "If we don't get it done, it's just going to be something that we're not going to like. And that's OK, I understand that very well," he told the room before shooing cameras out.
Behind closed doors, Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, who likely faces a competitive re-election race in 2018, complained that he was being targeted by a pro-Trump nonprofit. That group, America First Policies, subsequently announced the suspension of its anti-Heller advertising campaign.
Later, during a tele-town hall, Heller made his displeasure clear, saying Trump wasn't his first, second or third choice, "but he's the president of the United States."
Responding to another caller, Heller lamented, "It is frustrating to deal with a White House that is not 100 percent accurate."
While Trump is eager to hear out, cajole and massage the swelling number of Republican senators who remain holdouts on the monumental health care legislation that would increase the number of people without insurance by 22 million but also reduce the nation's deficit, his capacity is muted in the shadow of McConnell.
Trump occupies the most powerful pulpit in the world, but it's McConnell who will decide what amendments will be made, whether to bring the bill to the floor or pull it, and whether to move on to other priorities. And for many senators, Trump's erratic, inconsistent nature makes McConnell the preferable negotiating partner, especially on such a highly technical piece of legislation as health care.
"It has been a challenge to him to learn how to interact with Congress and how to push his agenda forward," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters Tuesday.
Even a White House official involved in the messaging on health care acknowledges McConnell is largely steering the ship.
"McConnell and his team and the rest of leadership are hammering out the details," says the official, who did not have permission to speak on the record. "We rely on his expertise on the procedural stuff. He definitely plays a big role."
At least nine Republican senators have indicated their opposition to the draft health care legislation in its current form.
But their problems with the minutiae vary. Paul says the bill still provides too many subsidies without lowering premiums. Heller is against the bill's phase-out of Medicaid expansion. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wants an opt-out provision from the entire system offered to states and individuals.
Given that GOP leadership can only lose two senators and still gain passage, any concession is balanced on a knife's edge and risks undercutting other sections of support.
But while Trump's sell to senators is largely emotion-based, McConnell has thus far kept the cards close to his vest on how much he's willing to alter the bill and how long he's willing to fight for votes. If Trump is inclined to exhaust all of his passions on the phone, via Twitter and in person, McConnell is maintaining a cold and quiet poker face.
"A lot of these decisions are Senate-centric. This is a closely knit group spending oodles of time in lunches and working groups. There's a pathway here, but it's not this week," a former top adviser to McConnell says.
Even before McConnell delayed the vote, the White House had indicated it was open to an extended timeframe.
Asked at the White House press briefing Monday if the administration had a drop-dead deadline for the bill's final passage, press secretary Sean Spicer responded, "I think we'd like to see whenever they leave for their August break – their August recess – it done by then."
The longer the measure lingers for debate, the more scrutiny it will invite from all sides of the political spectrum, likely turning up the pressure on senators who will face constituents during summer recesses.
At the same time, Trump aides are moving forward with targeting key states with anti-Obamacare messaging, in order to remind the cadre of persuadable senators of the stakes.
Priority states include Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio and Maine – each of which includes a GOP senator who sits on the fence or is outright opposed to the bill as written.
The Trump operation is facilitating newspaper op-eds and television interviews in these places with local business leaders, doctors and health care manufacturers who participated in health care listening sessions at the White House.
"It's essentially a negative Obamacare message point, noting how many insurers have dropped out, how many counties are without insurers in certain states," the White House official says. "A lot of this is also a local play, making sure the regional and local communications plan is echoed in that chamber."
Trump is finding that an audience of 52 senators, each with their own diverse constituencies and localized priorities, is much more difficult to move than the masses.
His frustration boiled over again Wednesday morning as he responded to coverage that he's "not totally engaged in healthcare. Wrong," he tweeted. "I know the subject well & want victory for U.S."
But, given the hurdles this bill will need to overcome, the Senate aide says Trump might be better off staying an arm's length from the process and allowing McConnell to own it.
"It gives the White House cover and the ability to blame Congress," the aide says.