Rand & Don in O’Care-fix ‘tee’ party
Sounds like President Trump is working on his long game.
Trump hit the links at his golf course in Virginia again on Sunday, this time with one of his chief health-care critics, Sen. Rand Paul.
The Kentucky Republican, dressed in a black long-sleeve shirt, sunglasses and baseball cap, was seen with the president and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling.
“They’re discussing a variety of topics, including health care,” said White House deputy press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
Before teeing off with Paul, Trump went on Twitter to deny the GOP health-care plan was dead and to say negotiations have been ongoing and “will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck.”
“Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!” he wrote.
After the golf outing, Paul said he and the president discussed “a little bit of health care . . . I continue to be very optimistic that we are getting closer and closer to an agreement on repealing ObamaCare.”
A libertarian, Paul was among the more conservative faction of Republicans in the House and Senate who opposed the GOPbacked plan to replace ObamaCare, saying it didn’t go far enough to repeal former President Barack Obama’s legislation.
Paul once called the Republican effort “ObamaCare lite.”
Trump and Paul, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination, frequently clashed during the campaign. At one point, Trump launched an attack on Paul and his golf game.
“Recently, Rand Paul called me and asked me to play golf. I easily beat him on the golf course and will even more easily beat him now, in the world in the politics [sic],” Trump said in a statement in August 2015.
But he turned to flattery last month when he was trying to shore up support for the healthcare plan and was facing massive defections from more conservative Republicans.
“I feel sure that my friend @RandPaul will come along with the new and great health care program,” Trump tweeted on March 7.
Trump, a frequent critic of Obama’s golf outings, has now hit the fairway 13 times since becoming president on Jan. 20.