SALT LAKE CITY — Though some Republican members of Congress have questioned President Donald Trump's leadership abilities, Sen. Mike Lee says they have no room to talk.

"I don't think senators, especially Republican senators, at this point have any business preaching to the president about leadership ability when we ourselves have failed to do that which we said we would for seven consecutive years," Utah's junior GOP senator said in an interview Thursday.

Lee said Trump, for the most part, has stayed consistent with what he talked about as a candidate, though he acknowledged the president hasn't delivered on his big-ticket items such as repealing and replacing Obamacare, building a border wall or tax reform.

"A lot of things remain undone or unaddressed because Congress hasn't acted," he said.

Lee hosted his annual Utah Solutions Summit at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, focusing on collaboration as a blueprint for success. He said the odds of something fruitful coming from working together go up when people shed their personal biases and bring to the table what they fundamentally value the most.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in May that a "lack of leadership" from the White House was interfering with Republican priorities on Capitol Hill. Last week, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., slammed Trump's response to the racially motivated violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying the president hasn't shown the stability or competence to be successful.

Trump has shown more combativeness than collaboration in his first eight months in office.

"It's a very different style. It's taken some people off guard, but it is his approach and it's part of who he is," Lee said. "There are many people who found that style appealing. He did in fact get elected president."

Still, Lee said his colleagues on both sides of the aisle have met with the president more in the first eights months than they did during two terms of the Obama administration. Lee said Trump is "somewhat collaborative" by nature and wants to take a hands-on approach with Congress.

Lee, who didn't vote for Trump, sharply criticized the president's reaction to Charlottesville, saying "carrying a Nazi flag or any other symbol of white supremacy is a hateful act that cannot be morally defended, least of all by the leader of a diverse nation."

Trump eventually got where he and others thought he should be in condemning racism, though maybe not in the sequence people preferred, the senator said.

Some have called Trump's conflicting statements a pivotal point in his presidency, but Lee doesn't see it that way. He said the people who supported him before continue to stand behind him.

"I think there are a lot of people who want that to be a turning point and want to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said.

Lee said Trump playing to his base at a rally in Phoenix this week was "definitely different" for a sitting president, but not terribly surprising.

"This is this president we're talking about," adding that based on Trump's style as a candidate, this would be his style in office. "It's out of the norm, like many things."

On Trump's speech about the war in Afghanistan, Lee said he still has questions for the president about what his plan entails.

"How long are we going to be there? What's our ultimate objective? What are we going to do to make our men and women in service over there safe and to make sure they come home alive and healthy having accomplished their mission?" the senator said.