--- title: President Trump's First Big Test description: As tomorrow's vote nears, President Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan are working to whip the required votes to replace Obamacare. canonical: https://time.com/4708877/president-trumps-first-big-test/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-22T16:01:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:57:55.726Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump's First Big Test og:description: As tomorrow's vote nears, President Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan are working to whip the required votes to replace Obamacare. og:url: https://time.com/4708877/president-trumps-first-big-test/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Morning Must Reads og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump's First Big Test twitter:description: As tomorrow's vote nears, President Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan are working to whip the required votes to replace Obamacare. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's First Big Test > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=14108948-1399-40ff-a0ee-9b70b9798ac4&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 22, 2017 4:01 PM UTC  The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 22, 2017 4:01 PM UTC It’s coming down to the wire for President Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, as they seek to whip the required votes for their bill to replace Obamacare. Leadership is an untold number of votes short, but both the Speaker and Trump are making the hard sell to members. Trump is casting the bill as a prerequisite to passing all manner of other legislation that Republicans want, including tax reform. But conservatives want a faster and more complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act, while some moderates are not on board with provisions that would end Medicaid expansion. Thursday’s vote will be a key test of the uneasy alliance between Trump and Ryan, and will set the course for the president’s legislative agenda for the next four years. Judge Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, is sailing through the Senate Judiciary Committee, with folksy humor and deliberative answers. Some of the hottest flash points have been over his view of the role of the federal government and Trump’s attacks on federal judges. In both cases, Gorsuch avoided the political minefield—and in the case of Trump’s comments, felt free to criticize Trump. Senate Democrats have been trying to trip him up, with little success, as they use the hearing to try to score political points. But Democrats will soon have to decide where they stand on his nomination. It won’t be easy for many, who are torn between a base that wants to penalize Trump at every turn and the danger of forcing Republicans to use the “nuclear option” which would remove their leverage over Trump’s next Supreme Court pick. All eyes on McConnell in the Senate. More questions about Manafort and Russia. And Gorsuch gets the Reddit question. _Here are your must reads:_ **Must Reads** [President Trump to Republicans: Repeal Obamacare or Lose Your Jobs ](http://time.com/4707986/obamacare-repeal-donald-trump-capitol-hill/)Trump’s sales pitch to the GOP \[TIME\] [Neil Gorsuch Safely Avoided Drama During the Second Day of His Confirmation Hearings ](http://time.com/4708107/neil-gorsuch-confirmation-hearing-day-two/?xid=newsletter-brief)TIME’s Tessa Berenson on a day of dad jokes and Democratic prodding [Manafort’s Plan to ‘Greatly Benefit the Putin Government’ ](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a/manaforts-plan-greatly-benefit-putin-government)Trump’s former campaign chairman’s ties to Russia under scrutiny \[Associated Press\] [The 7 Big Revisions Republicans Made to Their Health Care Bill, and Why They Made Them ](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/21/upshot/the-7-big-revisions-republicans-made-to-their-health-care-bill.html)Who got what, and why \[New York Times\] [House Obamacare Repeal DOA in the Senate ](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/obamacare-repeal-senate-mcconnell-236326)Salvaging it will be the rescue mission of Mitch McConnell’s career \[Politico\] **Sound Off** “We’re also taking decisive action to improve our vetting procedures. The courts are not helping us. I have to be honest with you. It’s ridiculous. Somebody said I should not criticize judges. OK. I’ll criticize judges to keep criminals and terrorists the hell out of our country.” — Trump at a dinner for the National Republican Congressional Committee Tuesday night “I know these people, and how decent they are, and when anyone criticizes the honesty or integrity or motives of a federal judge, I find that disheartening and I find that demoralizing.” — Gorsuch on Trump’s tweets attacking judges **Bits and Bites** [Here’s Why the U.S. Is Banning Larger Electronics on Some Overseas Flights](http://time.com/4708332/laptop-ban-electronics-international-flights/) \[TIME\] [Neil Gorsuch Calls President Trump’s Attacks on Judges ‘Disheartening’ and ‘Demoralizing’](http://time.com/4708727/neil-gorsuch-donald-trump-judge-attack-disheartening-demoralizing/) \[Associated Press\] [Chuck Grassley Will Leave the Neil Gorsuch Confirmation Hearing Early to Make His Bedtime](http://time.com/4708662/chuck-grassley-neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-bedtime/) \[TIME\] [A Senator Asked Neil Gorsuch If He’d Rather Fight a Horse-Sized Duck or 100 Duck-Sized Horses](http://time.com/4708665/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-jeff-flake-horse-duck-reddit/) \[TIME\] [Justice Department Takes Rare Step to Revoke Terrorist’s U.S. Citizenship](http://time.com/4708492/terrorist-citizenship/) \[Associated Press\] [Labor nominee Acosta cut deal with billionaire guilty in sex abuse case](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/labor-nominee-acosta-cut-deal-with-billionaire-in-sex-abuse-case-involving-40-underage-girls/2017/03/21/d33271a8-0d85-11e7-ab07-07d9f521f6b5%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.e57b596bbca9) \[Washington Post\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4708877/president-trumps-first-big-test/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4708877/president-trumps-first-big-test/"},"headline":"President Trump's First Big Test","datePublished":"2017-03-22T16:01:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:57:55.726Z","description":"Morning Must Reads: March 22","url":"https://time.com/4708877/president-trumps-first-big-test/","keywords":["Morning Must Reads"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Morning Must Reads","caption":"Capitol","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4708877/president-trumps-first-big-test/","name":"President Trump's First Big Test"}}]}] ```