Wall, torture just ‘campaign talk’
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump has signalled that he will compromise on key issues such as overturning President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform and building a wall on the Mexican border, risking a backlash from the hardline supporters who swept him to power.
Before his win Trump described the outgoing administration’s health reform, known as ‘‘Obamacare’’, as a ‘‘disaster’’ and a ‘‘big lie’’.
After meeting Obama in the Oval Office, the president-elect struck a very different tone, saying he preferred to amend the measure rather than repeal it.
Trump told The Wall Street Journal that he favours keeping the prohibition against insurers denying coverage because of patients’ existing conditions and retaining a provision that allows parents to provide years of extra coverage for children on their insurance policies. ’’I like those very much,’’ said Trump, conceding that his change of heart had come as a result of his meeting with Obama.
Senior advisers to Trump have indicated that even his most startling promise, to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants and make Mexico pay for it, had been campaign rhetoric rather than reality.
‘‘He’ll spend a lot of time controlling the border,’’ said Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives tipped as a possible secretary of state. ‘‘He may not spend very much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it but it was a great campaign device.’’
Mike Rogers, in line to become Trump’s CIA chief, dismissed a pledge by Trump to bring back waterboarding of terrorist suspects - widely condemned as a form of torture - as ‘‘campaign talk’’.
In another sign that Trump was aligning himself with the political
"He'll spend a lot of time controlling the border. He may not spend very much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it but it was a great campaign device." Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives
establishment he had railed against, it emerged that he had spoken to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee and a figure he had mocked as a ‘‘loser’’ on the campaign trail. Right-wing blogs reacted with anger and disbelief at what they saw as signs that Trump was backtracking on some of his most voluble election promises.
‘‘Trump isn’t even president yet and he’s already waffling on a full repeal of Obamacare,’’ wrote The Right Scoop. ‘‘What a principle-less chump!’’
The Anti Media blog condemned Trump’s ‘‘flip-flop’’, asking: ‘‘Which of his campaign promises will be the next to go?’’ Sunday Times