For seven long years — seven years and one day, to be precise — the Republican Party that now has Donald Trump as its president had been getting increasingly elected on the promise to kill Obamacare.

Over those years, that singular promise eventually got them control of the House of Representatives. It got them control of the Senate, which gave them a lock on Congress.

And, last year, it got them into the White House.

Then, when it was time to walk the walk, those same Republicans who campaigned on Obamacare’s death folded like a cheap tent rather than take the bold step of actually doing what they said they were going to do once elected.

For two nights in a row, and despite an ultimatum by Trump to get it done or move on, the Republicans could not get the number of votes in their corner to repeal and replace Obamacare.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who led the charge for his party’s proposed health care legislation and the man whose job it was to rally the necessary support to seal the deal, could not turn his own people enough to get the bill passed.

So he was told by Trump to pull the plug.

Even Fox News, prone to giving slack to Trump and the Republicans, was hugely critical of the party’s inability to secure the necessary votes.

“I personally believe at this moment the Republican Party is a disgrace,” said veteran Fox business editor Stuart Varney.

“The very, very first thing that come up on the legislative agenda, they vote no. They’re split. They can’t do it

“They can’t govern,” he said. “I’m fit to be tied.”

Later, Ryan lamely told a press conference that the impasse best described as a huge embarrassment was the result of “growing pains” within a party unaccustomed to governing.

If anything, it was the more conservative Republicans in the House who wanted nothing to do with the replacement health care legislation, claiming it was too progressive for their liking, and then there were the moderates who claimed it was too harsh.

All who rode to victory on the promise to kill Obamacare, however, will have some explaining to do to their constituents.

They had collectively copped out.

Shortly after Ryan’s presser, Trump addressed the situation from the Oval Office, stating that the lost vote, while “very close,” was “probably the best thing that could have happened.”

“Obamacare is going to explode,” he said. “It’s not sustainable.

“But the Democrats own it now. It’s theirs, not ours.”

As Trump put it earlier, “Two years, (if we) don’t do anything, the Democrats will come to us and beg for help.

“Obamacare is a disaster.”

Despite the somewhat brave face and the attempt at positive spin, it was not a good day for Donald Trump.

He, after all, is the self-proclaimed dealmaker who failed the first major test of his infant presidency.

This cannot sit well.

Worse, there is no one he can fire.

markbonokoski@gmail.com