Trump blames hardliners for defeat

US President Donald Trump listens to a speaker during a Greek Independence Day celebration in the East Room of the White House on March 24, 2017 in Washington, DC. PHOTO | MANDEL NGAN | AFP

What you need to know:

  • His frontal attack on the hardline Freedom Caucus cast a bright light on the intraparty tensions that seem sure to flare up as Trump now turns to key priorities like tax reform and the promise of major infrastructure spending.
  • Mr Trump sat in the Oval Office on Friday evening in an unfamiliar position — having to own failure.
  • Fittingly perhaps, Mr Trump addressed his failure from behind a desk in the Oval Office.

WASHINGTON

Donald Trump on Sunday laid blame squarely at the feet of his Republican party’s ultra-conservative wing for the most stinging defeat of his young presidency, holding it responsible for the failed attempt to repeal Obamacare and for weakening a broader effort to curb abortions.

“Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!” he tweeted early today, two days after he and Republican leaders cancelled a House vote on repealing Obamacare that was headed for failure.

After a day of stock-taking and behind-the-scenes consultations over the lessons of the embarrassing setback, Mr Trump appeared to be returning on Sunday to his customary bravado.

His frontal attack on the hardline Freedom Caucus, and on two other powerful conservative forces in Washington, cast a bright light on the intraparty tensions that seem sure to flare up as Trump now turns to key priorities like tax reform and the promise of major infrastructure spending.

The Club for Growth, with its tight focus on anti-tax policies, has long been influential in conservative Washington circles and reportedly financed a half-billion dollar ad campaign urging Republican lawmakers to oppose their party’s health bill.

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL

It was an early critic of the Trump candidacy, branding him a “big-government liberal” and calling him “the worst kind of politician, who’ll say anything to get elected.”

Mr Trump sat in the Oval Office on Friday evening in an unfamiliar position — having to own failure. His health care reform, his very first significant legislative proposal, had fallen at the first hurdle in a friendly Congress.

For sure, the 70-year-old businessman had faltered before — from bankrupt casinos to shuttered hotels. But until now bravado was enough to keep his brand intact, and carry him all the way to the White House.

Now — in the fiercest spotlight in the world, as president of the United States — there was nowhere to hide.

Fittingly perhaps, Mr Trump addressed his failure from behind a desk in the Oval Office.

It was in that same spot that Harry Truman kept a sign that encapsulated all the pressures and accountability of an imperial presidency: “The buck stops here.”

Trump was not ready to take quite that much ownership, although he did profess to be “a little surprised” by the plan’s failure. We got close, he said, as if it mattered.