--- title: Donald Trump Changes Tone on Democrats After Health Care description: President Trump is "absolutely" willing to work with Democrats on other parts of his agenda canonical: https://time.com/4714199/donald-trump-democrats-tax-reform-infrastructure/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-27T18:45:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:03:30.297Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Changes Tone on Democrats After Health Care Failure og:description: The White House says he's already fielded calls from some lawmakers og:url: https://time.com/4714199/donald-trump-democrats-tax-reform-infrastructure/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10961afba150bba3/6988c0117cdbac0518d579f2/gettyimages-658393652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Participates In Roundtable With Women Small Business Owners og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Changes Tone on Democrats After Health Care Failure twitter:description: The White House says he's already fielded calls from some lawmakers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10961afba150bba3/6988c0117cdbac0518d579f2/gettyimages-658393652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Changes Tone on Democrats After Health Care Failure > 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=d98b10f8-7e60-416c-84be-3ad53c8592d0&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 27, 2017 6:45 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump listens while meeting with women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, March 27, 2017\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump listens while meeting with women small business owners in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, March 27, 2017\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 27, 2017 6:45 PM UTC President Trump is “absolutely” willing to work with Democrats on other parts of his agenda after [discord among Republicans](http://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/) [torpedoed his plans](http://time.com/4712852/ahca-donald-trump-obamacare-repeal-failure/) to repeal and replace Obamacare. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday that Trump is already fielding calls from Democrats who are looking to develop a relationship with the Administration as the focus shifts from health care to tax reform and infrastructure spending. “We learned a lot through this process,” Spicer told reporters. The health care bill was pulled by House Republican leadership Friday as GOP moderates and conservatives fled from the controversial legislation. The White House and [Speaker of the House Paul Ryan](http://time.com/4713114/paul-ryan-ahca-health-care-failure-transcript/) have laid the blame on the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which refused to get behind the bill despite earning significant concessions from the GOP drafters. The failure of the bill raised new doubts about the entire Trump legislative agenda, which until that point had been predicated on the Republican Party’s unified control of the legislative and executive branches. Spicer conceded that the shift to working with Democrats would mark a significant break by the White House, which believed it could rely on GOP majorities to pass legislation. He added that the White House is launching a postmortem to discover what went right and what went wrong with the health care bill. Trump’s outreach to Democrats may be hampered by his past remarks. In January, he called Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer [“head clown”](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/816977032433270784) of the party. His unfavorable rating among the Democratic grassroots, meantime, is at [a sky-high 85%](http://buffalonews.com/2017/03/27/siena-college-poll-finds-support-trump-drops-third-consecutive-month-new-york/), according to one recent poll. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4714199/donald-trump-democrats-tax-reform-infrastructure/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4714199/donald-trump-democrats-tax-reform-infrastructure/"},"headline":"President Trump Changes Tone on Democrats After Health Care Failure","datePublished":"2017-03-27T18:45:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:03:30.297Z","description":"President Trump is \"absolutely\" willing to work with Democrats on other parts of his agenda","url":"https://time.com/4714199/donald-trump-democrats-tax-reform-infrastructure/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Health Care","democrats","Congress","White House","twitter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10961afba150bba3/6988c0117cdbac0518d579f2/gettyimages-658393652.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/blt10961afba150bba3/6988c0117cdbac0518d579f2/gettyimages-658393652.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Participates In Roundtable With Women Small Business Owners","caption":"President Trump Participates In Roundtable With Women Small Business Owners","creditText":"Bloomberg/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":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4714199/donald-trump-democrats-tax-reform-infrastructure/","name":"President Trump Changes Tone on Democrats After Health Care Failure"}}]}] ```