A lot of Republicans hate Donald Trump’s healthcare plan, and he’s sending out mixed messages about how hard he plans to fight for it and how much he’s willing to change it. But it seems he’s prepared to lose—he just plans to turn his loss into a problem for people who need health care and for Democrats.
"This is going to be great. You're going to make it even greater," the President told the group, sources at the White House meeting told CNN. "I'm going to work hard to get it done."
But should the bill eventually fail, Trump outlined a backup plan: Allow Obamcare to fail and let Democrats take the blame, sources said.
There’s a lot a president can do to undermine how well Obamacare works, so letting it fail is a very real threat. And letting it fail would hurt a lot of people. Some of those people just might notice that things started getting worse under Trump, but Democrats would need to be ready to fight to make sure people noticed, and didn’t get fooled by ads backed by an avalanche of Republican money.
But step one in making sure people know what’s going on is this: making sure they know Trump is telling Republicans he’s ready to lose … as long as he has a way to turn someone else into a loser along with him. His focus is on screwing up your health care, by whatever means he has available.