President Trump said Thursday that despite media reports of Republican infighting over replacing ObamaCare, the GOP’s healthcare plan will “end in a beautiful picture.”
“Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!,” Trump tweeted.
Trump has been in full salesman mode this week talking up the bills the House proposed Monday that would dismantle President Obama’s signature healthcare policy.
Next Wednesday, he’ll head to Nashville for a stadium-sized event to rally support for the new GOP plan.
Trump and members of his administration have been making the rounds in Washington to encourage and, at times, cajole lawmakers and activists to get on board.
In a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, the president scolded a gathering of conservative groups who referred to the Republican plan as “ObamaCare Lite,” CNN reported on Thursday, citing sources at the meeting.
He warned the assembled — including the Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Patriots — that they “are helping the other side” with their remarks about the GOP plan, according to the report.
But he also opened himself up to a compromise, according to the report, on other aspects of the plan – including Medicaid expansion – that encouraged the groups.
“This is going to be great. You’re going to make it even greater. I’m going to work hard to get it done,” Trump told the gathering of conservative leaders this week, CNN reported, citing sources who attended the hour-long meeting.
Trump, who was joined by White House advisers Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway and chief of staff Reince Priebus, also said he would pressure lawmakers opposing repeal and replace by campaigning against them in their home districts.
“Trump said he will have football-stadium events in states where he won by 10-12 points and he is going to dare people to vote against him,” CNN reported.
He also said he thought that Sen. Rand Paul, one of the most vocal critics of the plan, will eventually come around.
“I love him. He’s a friend. He’s going to end up voting for it,” Trump said about the Kentucky Republican.
The GOP-controlled House rolled out two bills on Monday to repeal and replace former President Obama’s signature health care plan.
But they have come under withering assault by some of GOP’s more conservative members who believe it doesn’t go far enough to overhaul ObamaCare.
The country’s largest medical and doctor groups – the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association – have also expressed their opposition, saying the GOP plan will result in millions of Americans losing coverage.