The buck stops with Trump

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office on Friday evening in an unfamiliar position – having to own failure.

His health care reform, his very first significant legislative proposal, had fallen at the first hurdle in a friendly Congress.

For sure, the 70-year- old businessman had faltered before – from bankrupt casinos to shuttered hotels. But until now bravado was enough to keep his brand intact, and carry him all the way to the White House.

Now – in the fiercest spotlight in the world, as president of the United States – there was nowhere to hide.

Fittingly perhaps, Trump addressed his failure from behind a desk in the Oval Office.

It was in that same spot that Harry Truman kept a sign that encapsulated all the pressures and accountability of an imperial presidency: “The buck stops here.”

Trump was not ready to take quite that much ownership, although he did profess to be ‘a little surprised’ by the plan’s failure. We got close, he said, as if it mattered. But Trump offered surprisingly little criticism for his brothers-in- arms. That may come when the dust falls.

His criticism of the Democrats – none of whom were ever going to vote for a bill that dismantled Barack Obama’s signature health reform – felt almost formulaic.

At the end of the day Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House, they should not have needed Democratic votes. There was no avoiding it: the self-professed ‘closer’ had struck out.

“Trump, it turns out, is not actually able to put together any deal that he wants,” wrote Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, on CNN. com. — AFP