Trump Tweets, Vowing Obamacare Isn’t Safe Yet

President Donald Trump defiantly took to Twitter Sunday, decrying widespread media speculation that he was backing away from his campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare after the failure of Ryancare.

Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2017

The president and his aides had been steadfast in his efforts to get a healthcare bill through Congress despite the unpopularity and flaws of the “American Health Care Act,” spearheaded by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) before it was forced to be withdrawn for lack of support among various elements of the House Republican Caucus on March 24.

In criticizing the House Freedom Caucus in a tweet this past Thursday, Trump appeared to be referring to the Caucus’s instrumentality in preventing the House Republican Majority from settling for the unpopular Ryancare. “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast,” the president tweeted.

Sunday’s tweets, however, indicate confidence on Trump’s part that his party can still be unified behind a plan to repeal and replace former President Obama’s still unpopular Affordable Healthcare Act. The president appeared determined that a plan amenable to the desperate current of opinions that have emerged within the Republican Party over health care.

Talks on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2017

The tweets were backed up by a report in the Wall Street Journal that, in the hours following the tweets, President Trump met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), along with his Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, at his Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia. Senator Paul had been among the fiercest critics of Speaker Ryan’s bill as it made its way through the lower chamber. “They’re discussing a variety of topics, including health care,” White House deputy press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the Journal.

While some in the GOP have expressed their desire to move on to other legislative priorities, the president’s latest comments on social media stand counter to mainstream media suggestions that health care reform, and by extension Trump’s ability to govern, is dead in the aftermath of Ryancare’s failure.