US President Trump’s party fails in Obamacare repeal effort

World Today

It’s a big set-back for Donald Trump’s Administration on Capitol Hill. The President’s majority party has seen the collapse of two bills meant to repeal his predecessor’s health-care legacy.

This is while the White House faces multiple foreign policy challenges this week. CGTN’s Roee Ruttenberg reports.

It was a key Trump campaign promise but this week, that promise was dealt a serious blow. Two more Republican Senators announced that they would not support a bill to repeal and reform former U.S. President Barack Obama’s signature health care act.

His successor, Donald Trump, and Republican lawmakers, had hoped to replace it with their own version. “I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of Obamacare will not be successful,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY.

On Twitter, Trump acknowledged that a replacement bill won’t be possible in the short term writing that “Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!”

Even a repeal-only effort appeared uncertain with Trump saying he is prepared to let Obamacare fail, and let Democrats take the blame. “Disappointed, very disappointed. I don’t think it’s dead. No, but I’m certainly disappointed,” said Trump.

As the Republicans regroup on healthcare, the Trump administration focused on foreign policy. The White House, certifying that Iran is living up to its end of an international nuclear deal and yet, hours later, imposing sanctions on 18 individuals and entities related to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

Trump also released a statement promising “strong and swift economic actions” against Venezuela, if the government there goes through with plans for a new Constituent Assembly to re-write the country’s constitution.

New polling from NBC News suggested that many in the U.S. have doubts about Trump’s leadership on the world stage. Three out of four Americans surveyed said they are worried the U.S. will become engaged in a major war in the next 4 years. The figure is up 10 percent since February, shortly after Trump took office.

And late on Tuesday, the White House, releasing new information that Trump met a second time with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20, nearly two weeks ago.

Officials say no staff or cabinet members attended the meeting and did not say why they waited this long to reveal that the second meeting happened.


Dan Perkin’s gives a Trump supproters’ take on the failure to repeal Obamacare

For more on Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare, as well as other issues hitting the Trump administration and a recent revelation of a secret meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, CGTN’s Elaine Reyes spoke with Dan Perkins, an author and political commentator who supports Donald Trump.