Trump Now Wants Republicans to Let Obamacare Fail on Its Own

“I’m not going to own it.”

Pablo Martinez Monsiva/AP

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President Donald Trump is calling on Republicans to allow the Affordable Care Act to collapse on its own and force Democrats into replacement negotiations. 

“Let Obamacare fail and then everyone’s going to have to come together and fix it,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. He added, “I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll let Obamacare fail. We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us.”

The new plan to intentionally sabotage the health care law marked an abrupt shift from Trump’s suggestion on Monday to repeal the health care law without a replacement plan. His latest remarks came shortly after three Republican senators announced they would oppose the motion to allow the straight appeal to move forward.

Despite the legislative failure of the Republican repeal-and-replace plan on Monday night, Trump appeared to commend himself for rallying an “impressive” margin of support from his own party.

“But the vote would have been, if you look at it, 48-4,” he said. “That’s a pretty impressive vote by any standard.”

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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