Mr. Trump has told four people close to him that he regrets going along with Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s plan to push a health care overhaul before unveiling a tax cut proposal more politically palatable to Republicans.
“So far he’s acting like a rookie. It’s really been amateur hour,” she added. “He seems to think that a charm offensive or a threat will work — that saying ‘I can do this for you’ or ‘I can do this against you’ will work. That’s not the way it works.
You have to build real consensus, and you have a to gain a real knowledge of the policy — and the president hasn’t done either of those things.”
Crashing on the shoals of Congress marks Mr. Trump’s first true encounter with legislative realities and the realization that a president’s power is less limitless than it appears, particularly in the face of an intransigent voting bloc.
Mr. Trump is not used to a hard no — but that was the word of the week.
To Mr. Trump and his team, the health care repeal is a troublesome stepchild.
He wants to fulfill his party’s pledge to roll back President Obama’s signature accomplishment, but only as a prelude to building his wall, cutting taxes and pushing his $1 trillion infrastructure package.
But resistance from his own party forced Mr. Ryan to delay the vote — even if he cast it as a take-it-or-leave-it deal.
It did not work. Until this week, Mr. Trump was slow to recognize the high stakes of the fight, or the implications of losing. He approved the agenda putting health care first late last year, almost in passing, in meetings with Mr. Ryan, Vice President Mike Pence and Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff.
Staff members agreed on a hasty rollout strategy during weekend meetings earlier this month —
with Mr. Pence suggesting that the president maintain distance from the proposal, urging him to refer to the bill as Mr. Ryan’s creation, according to senior Republicans.
A Brave Front, but Regrets? On Health Bill, Trump Has a Few
Well now we know that Pence would be just another
dirty-dealing-pass-the-blame POS POTUS, that
President Pinocchio is!
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