Donald Trump has failed his first big test as salesman-in-chief

“You saw it. With 100 percent of House Democrats – every single one – and a handful of Republicans actually standing in the way of President Trump’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, we’re back to the drawing board”.

Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, an activism group funded by the billionaire brothers, are putting together a “seven figure” fund to support House Republicans who face primary challenges or other fundraising challenges as a result of voting against the bill.

Trump blamed the bill’s failure on Democrats, despite significant opposition from Republicans, who control a majority in both the House and Senate.

Immediately after House Speaker Paul Ryan’s announcement to withdraw the legislation, Trump reiterated his long-held assertion that the Affordable Care Act is unraveling and will eventually “explode”.

As of Thursday afternoon, 24 Republican House members publicly said they would vote against it, forcing House Speaker Paul Ryan to cancel the planned vote. “So when it explodes, they come to us, and we make one lovely deal for the people”.

Ryan said Republicans will move on with the rest of their agenda because they have “big, ambitious plans”.

Trump – dubbed “The Closer” by House Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina, at the White House today – has successfully pushed some Republicans to support the bill.

He warned that now Obamacare is going to stay, people would see a sudden rise in their insurance premium. There’s not much you can do about it.

Trump’s new approach appears to be telling the country Obamacare is set to “explode” and, once that happens, Democrats will want to deal. This may not look like much of a town to you, but this is America’s city.

Trump’s threat could become “a self-fulfilling prophecy”, said Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the last two years of the Obama administration. A number of moderates came out against the bill this week, giving Republican leaders little room to negotiate changes.

While we wait for news, here’s Lindsey Graham moving to Plan B: Doing nothing and letting ObamaCare collapse.

“We’re certainly trying to get to yes, but indeed, we’ve made very reasonable requests and we’re hopeful that those reasonable requests will be listened to and ultimately agreed to”, Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows told reporters Thursday after a last-minute White House meeting to negotiate with Trump.

The worry in the White House now is that intra-party divisions in the Grand Old Party will derail Trump’s next big initiative of comprehensively reforming the USA tax system.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday he still expects the vote to take place later in the day.

But the health care bill debacle has commentators questioning the Trump administration’s ability to negotiate big reforms through Congress. It was a very tight margin.

The tweet went viral, and in an interview Gingrich added: “When I saw the numbers – that is everything I have opposed in my entire career”.

“We have to have a vote tomorrow”. Had he put the American Health Care Act, as the replacement bill is called, to a vote – as Trump insisted – and failed in the House, the 47-year-old Ryan, who nurses presidential ambitions, could have lost his job.

Trump added that the real losers are Democratic lawmakers like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi as they now “totally own it”. “But first he must show them ‘the downside” – and convince them they will fail on their own”.

He added he isn’t anxious about how the Senate would respond, were Rep. Trent Franks said, if the bill can make any better changes then we shouldn’t stop negotiations.

“Although the AHCA is off the table for now, we are currently unable to make an informed decision about whether to participate in 2018 in the individual marketplace without additional clarity on a couple of key issues”, said Dr. Mario Molina, CEO of Molina Health.