Trump’s central pitch, redistilled and redistributed on a near-daily basis over the course of 2016, was a simple one: I am a dealmaker, and I will make deals. It was a simple premise and his core campaign argument, simpler and more important than “make America great again.” Once you bought into the idea that Trump’s business acumen would translate into handshake agreements solidifying the future of our country, you were bought into the idea that he could do anything. Which is what he promised. He made sweeping assertions of what he could do, powered — not inhibited — by the objections of realists
“Health care that covers everyone for less cost and with better options!” Trump would promise. But that’s impossible!, the realists would respond. “That’s because you don’t know how to make deals,” Trump would reply. If you bought into the idea that Trump could close the deal, you bought into the idea that the naysayers simply didn’t get it.
Trump can’t close the deals.
What deals has he made? He got a conservative appointment confirmed for the Supreme Court — after having Neil M. Gorsuch recommended to him by outside groups and after the Senate changed its rules to assure the confirmation. He’s signed a lot of executive orders, but those aren’t deals and some of those were blocked by the courts.
But legislation? No.
(On Monday night, it was “REPEAL failing ObamaCare now.” On Tuesday morning, “[a]s I have always said, let ObamaCare fail.”) And yet, as we noted on Monday, Trump didn’t really do very much to ensure its passage.
He traveled to France last week for a Bastille Day celebration, a trip that had been planned for some time but does not appear to have been unmissable. When he returned to the country over the weekend, he literally spent hours over two days watching a golf tournament at his private club in New Jersey. Where was the dealmaking?
Theoretically, the buck stops at the president’s desk. But Trump seems more than happy to let the blame fall elsewhere: On his Republican allies, on the Democrats, on Hillary Clinton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/18/trump-has-repeatedly-broken-his-core-campaign-promise/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_promises-150p:homepage/story&utm_term=.b138fb4054ea
“Health care that covers everyone for less cost and with better options!” Trump would promise. But that’s impossible!, the realists would respond. “That’s because you don’t know how to make deals,” Trump would reply. If you bought into the idea that Trump could close the deal, you bought into the idea that the naysayers simply didn’t get it.
Trump can’t close the deals.
What deals has he made? He got a conservative appointment confirmed for the Supreme Court — after having Neil M. Gorsuch recommended to him by outside groups and after the Senate changed its rules to assure the confirmation. He’s signed a lot of executive orders, but those aren’t deals and some of those were blocked by the courts.
But legislation? No.
(On Monday night, it was “REPEAL failing ObamaCare now.” On Tuesday morning, “[a]s I have always said, let ObamaCare fail.”) And yet, as we noted on Monday, Trump didn’t really do very much to ensure its passage.
He traveled to France last week for a Bastille Day celebration, a trip that had been planned for some time but does not appear to have been unmissable. When he returned to the country over the weekend, he literally spent hours over two days watching a golf tournament at his private club in New Jersey. Where was the dealmaking?
Theoretically, the buck stops at the president’s desk. But Trump seems more than happy to let the blame fall elsewhere: On his Republican allies, on the Democrats, on Hillary Clinton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/18/trump-has-repeatedly-broken-his-core-campaign-promise/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_promises-150p:homepage/story&utm_term=.b138fb4054ea
