Trump won't take responsibility for health care failures, but his old tweets suggest he should

Despite tweeting in prior years that leaders must take responsibility, Trump won't own his legislative failures

Published July 18, 2017 6:02PM (EDT)

 (AP/Evan Vucci)
(AP/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump's old tweets — in which he bashed his predecessor regarding leadership, and taking responsibility —are resurfacing amidst Republican health care legislative failures. And it's not a good look.

"Leadership: Whatever happens, you're responsible. If it doesn't happen, you're responsible," read one.

After numerous failed attempts to pass a health care bill, it should come as no surprise that the man who believes himself to be the greatest deal-maker has refused to take any responsibility. In one Trump tweet from September 2012, he bashed former President Barack Obama and indicated that shifting the blame to an opposing party for obstruction is unacceptable behavior from a leader. Yet that is exactly what he's doing right now.

"Let Obamacare fail, it will be a lot easier. And I think we're probably in that position where we'll just let Obamacare fail," Trump said on Tuesday. "We're not going to own it. I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us."

It doesn't matter to Trump that the Republicans have full control of both chambers of Congress, as well as the White House, and still couldn't muster enough support from within their own party for a health care proposal that was projected to strip roughly 22 million people of insurance.

In 2013, when Trump was a citizen, it was the Republican Party's responsibility to own efforts to repeal Obamacare. In 2017, under the Trump administration, it's the opposing minority party's responsibility.


By Charlie May

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