TERRIBLE WEEK ENDS FOR TRUMP, REPUBLICANS
‘ The closer’ couldn’t close the deal— and things probably will only get harder
Welcome to Washington.
In a major setback to the first legislative initiative of his administration, President Trump on Friday agreed with House Speaker Paul Ryan to cancel a scheduled- delayed- and- rescheduled vote to overhaul the Affordable Care Act after it became clear Republicans didn’t have the votes to pass it.
The repercussions won’t be limited to health care.
The unsuccessful scramble for votes, much of it played out in public on cable TV and Twitter, scars House Speaker Paul Ryan in particular and the GOP in general, given that Republicans have spent 71⁄ years and four elections promising to undo President Obama’s signature domestic initiative. Congressional Republicans had voted more than 50 times to overturn the law when they knew it didn’t count because Obama was in the WhiteHouse to veto it.
Friday’s vote — to be precise, the decision to avoid a vote because defeat was assured — was a crucial test for a new president already suffering the rockiest start of any new commander in chief in modern times.
Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed the FBI was investigating whether Trump associates coordinated with Russians trying to meddle in the presidential election. Trump’s approval rating was 37% in a Gallup Poll this week, by far the worst of any president at this point in his tenure. Federal judges have blocked two of his executive orders aimed at tightening immigration from six predominantly Muslim countries.
Trump had rallied supporters at a campaign- style rally in Louisville. He traveled to CapitolHill to lobby some Republican members and invited others to use the White House bowling alley. He helped negotiate revisions first to win over restive conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus and then to hold uneasy moderates. “He left it all on the field,” subdued White House press secretary Sean Spicer said before the vote.
The fact that Trump’s all wasn’t enough to carry the day raises questions about his political clout and his personal brand as “the closer,” the best- selling author of The Art of the Deal who could negotiate compromises that eluded ordinary politicians.
To be sure, Trump and congressional Republicans could regroup over the next few months on health care. The president predicted Democrats would reach out to negotiate a bipartisan bill as problems with the Affordable Care Act worsen. He expressed readiness to move on to other issues, including a tax overhaul.
However, it’s not as though amajor rewrite of the tax code will be easy, given the collision of well- funded interest groups it involves. Or Trump’s commitment for a $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill, a proposal that puts him at odds with some of his fellow Republicans. And building that “big, beautiful wall” across the Southern border? That’s not exactly a slam- dunk, either. To remind: It’s just Day 64.
“He left it all on the field.”
Sean Spicer, White House spokesman, on President Trump’s lobbying efforts on the bill