Deirdre Shesgreen

USA TODAY

Former House speaker John Boehner dismissed GOP efforts to craft a tax reform bill as “happy talk” and offered a scathing assessment of President Trump’s first 100 days in office while speaking at a conference this week.

The Ohio Republican said Trump has handled national security and foreign policy issues well, but added: “Everything else he’s done (in office) has been a complete disaster,” according to Rigzone, a website that covers the oil and gas industry.

“He’s still learning how to be president,” Boehner said in remarks Wednesday at a global energy conference hosted by KPMG, a major accounting firm.

Boehner told the audience that Trump did the best he could in pushing to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. But he suggested the president’s approach was wrong-headed. Trump should have worked to “repair” the law, not scrap it, Boehner asserted — something he never advocated while he was at the helm of the House.

Asked about GOP efforts to overhaul the tax code, the former House speaker said he was optimistic at the start of the year but he now doubts whether Republicans can pass such an ambitious bill.

“Tax reform is just a bunch of happy talk,” he said. The House GOP proposal to impose a border tax on imports is “deader than a doornail,” Boehner said, putting the overall odds of Republicans passing a bill at 60-40.

Boehner said he didn’t know anything about efforts by the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. But he said Democrats are only hurting themselves by talking about impeachment of the president.

“Talk of impeachment is the best way to rile up Trump supporters,” he said. “Remember, impeachment is not a legal process; it’s a political process.”