LOUISVILLE — Mitch McConnell suddenly finds himself in a spot he’s tried mightily to avoid — the focus of both a president’s criticism and the media focus on their disagreements.

McConnell is said to be “livid” about some of President Donald Trump’s ambiguous and contradictory statements on race and the president’s criticisms of and implied threats to other Republican Senators. But McConnell’s only public statements thus far have been to reiterate that the two men share the same general legislative agenda.

The Majority Leader didn’t add any light to the controversy Thursday at the annual Kentucky Farm Bureau Country Ham Breakfast at the state fair.

In fact, McConnell mostly just updated the speech he made for the eight years when Democrat Barack Obama was president, complaining about the over regulation of the economy under Obama and the repeal of 14 “onerous” regulations since Trump was inaugurated.

He said Republicans under his and Trump’s leadership are “taking our foot off the brake and putting it on the accelerator” of the economy. And he touted his role in the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as Supreme Court Justice, generally viewed as Trump’s most significant achievement thus far.

But even as McConnell spoke, Trump was criticizing him on Twitter.

Trump tweeted out that he’d asked McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan to tie raising the debt ceiling to popular veterans’ legislation but “they didn’t do it so now it’s a big deal with Democrats holding them up . . . .”

Then later Trump tweeted that his only problem with McConnell is “after hearing Repeal & Replace for 7 years, he failed!”

Meanwhile, former McConnell Chief of Staff Hunter Bates was on CNN immediately after McConnell spoke at the breakfast, tamping down the narrative that Trump and McConnell are at war as reported by national outlets like the New York Times.

As for McConnell, he didn’t wade into the controversy Thursday, walking past reporters and declining to respond to their questions.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnhifrankfort.