President Donald Trump walks to a waiting Marine One helicopter while departing the White House on March 15, 2017. (Getty)
President Donald Trump is now responding following the cancellation Friday’s expected vote on the American Health Care Act.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump called The Washington Post reporter Robert Costa to say that “We pulled the bill.” Trump also said that he doesn’t blame Paul Ryan for what happened.
President Trump just called me. Still on phone.
“We just pulled it,” he tells me.
“I don’t blame Paul,” Trump tells me
Costa later said on MSNBC that Trump told him that the American Health Care Act will not be reintroduced in the near future and Obamacare will be kept in place for the time being.
When asked by Costa whether he regrets starting his agenda with health care, Trump said that he doesn’t.
“No, I don’t,” he said. “But in a way I’m glad I got it out of the way.”
Trump also said that he thinks Democrats will want to cut a deal once Obamacare “explodes.”
“When it explodes they come to us and we make one beautiful deal,” Trump told Costa.
Trump then talked The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, and he blamed the failure of the bill on the Democrats.
The president again told Haberman that he suspects that the Democrats will want to work with his administration after Obamacare “explodes,” once again suggesting that no health care bill will be introduced in the immediate future.
TRUMP tells me in interview this is now the Democrats’ fault, and that he anticipates that when Obama “explodes” they will be ready to deal
Trump also told Haberman that he’s glad that this is over.
“It’s enough already,” he said of the health care negotiations.
Over the past few months, Trump has said on several occasions that the best thing Republicans could do would be to leave Obamacare in place so that it fails and Democrats are forced to beg for help in fixing it.
Trump told ABC News in January that he told Republicans that “the best thing we could do is nothing for two years, let it explode.”