Trumpcare RIP

Trumpcare RIP:  No one wanted to be the Senator responsible for dooming the Senate’s version of Trumpcare so last night as Trump was telling Republican leadership that they’d look like dopes if they didn’t pass the legislation, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran and Utah Senator Mike Lee linked arms and jointly tweeted themselves into the “no” column, joining Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Maine Senator Susan Collins and bringing the “no” vote count over the edge.  Senators Moran, Lee and Paul said “no” because they believe that Trumpcare didn’t go far enough in repealing Obamacare, Collins said “no” because she thought it went too far. Wavering moderate Senators who had been hiding in the bushes were standing ready to pile onto the “no” bus but have been spared from putting their heads on the chopping block.  Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted for a new process and a new plan and Senator McCain, recuperating in Arizona, tweeted that it is time to go back to regular order coming up with a plan that takes care of everyone.  It’s fair to say that  McConnell couldn’t figure out how to solve the Trumpcare Rubik’s cube and that Trumpcare is dead.  A number of Republicans want to vote on a straight Obamacare repeal and last night a desperate Trump quickly jumped on the repeal bandwagon tweeting “Republicans should just REPEAL failing Obamacare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!”  McConnell followed up with a statement that he is going to try to do just that, repeal Obamacare hoping to pass a new plan in two years.  A repeal, replace someday strategy is not expected to make it through the Senate.  Enough Republican Senators know it would be suicidal to destroy Obamacare without an immediate replacement so McConnell may just be going through a face saving exercise.  At some point he will have to dial 1 800 SCHUMER, and start working with Chuck on a joint bill to fix Obamacare’s flaws.  Health care is complicated.   

Mixed Messaging:  Trump can’t get Don Jr, Kushner and Manafort’s meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya out of his mind.  He started his day tweeting “Most people would have gone to a meeting like the one Don Jr attended in order to get info on an opponent.  That’s politics!”  Sean Spicer, who’s been in hiding, reappeared at the daily press conference, or at least his voice did since the conference was held off camera.  Despite Trump’s admission that little Donny was looking for Hillary dirt, Spicer recycled the old narrative that the meeting was all about adoptions.  The Natalia meeting may be the least of Paul Manafort’s problems.  Last night the Wall Street Journal reported that the  Manhattan District Attorney has subpoenaed bank records relating to a loan given to Manafort and his wife by a small Chicago bank run by Steve Calk, a member of Trump’s campaign advisory council.  The $16 million loan was highly unusual because it represented 24% of the bank’s capital. Manafort has claimed that the loan was not unusual, but banks do not lend a quarter of their capital to one borrower.  Calk had been angling to be appointed Trump’s Army Secretary. Manafort remains silent, at least in public.  He’s been spending some quality time with Special Counsel Mueller.     

Made in America Week:   The launch of Made in America Week went as expected.  Trump bragged about steaks now being sold to China and then took credit for 45,000 new mining jobs, a slight exaggeration over the 800 mining jobs that have been created since he took office.  He talked about the importance of hiring Americans, reinvigorating manufacturing, and trade reciprocity. There was no discussion of all the Trump and Ivanka products made overseas.  During his speech, the administration announced the release of 15,000 new seasonal visas, because summer resorts are having a hard time filling jobs with Americans.  

The Polls:  Everybody released new polls yesterday.  Trump’s job approval numbers are hovering around 36%.  Polls indicate that a lot of people believe that he doesn’t act presidential and  most don’t like his tweeting but his core dedicated supporters are with him and, at least until last night’s Trumpcare failure, most Republicans think he’s the cat’s meow.  He had crappy approval numbers last year and won the primaries and the election so it’s hard to know what these numbers really mean. This morning, in response to a week of obfuscation about the Natalia meeting and on the tail of the Trumpcare fiasco, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board finally spoke up and called him out saying the brutal realities of Washington politics “will destroy Mr. Trump, his family and their business reputation unless they change their strategy towards the Russia probe.  They don’t have much more time to do it.” They also said that they know that Trump will probably ignore their advice.

Iran Recertification:  Last night after a heated discussion with all of his security advisers, Trump agreed to certify again that Iran is meeting the terms of their international nuclear agreement. Security Advisor McMaster, Secretary of State Tillerson, Defense Secretary Mattis and Joint Chief Dunford beat him into submission, pushing hard for the recertification because one rogue nation barreling towards Armageddon is more than they can handle right now.  In exchange for his approval,  a very frustrated Trump sent his team off to come up with a strategy to toughen enforcement and better confront Iran for its support of terrorism before the next recertification date.