--- title: Donald Trump Tells Republicans To Let Obamacare Fail description: President Trump weighed in on the implosion of the Senate health care bill canonical: https://time.com/4862426/trump-healthcare-twitter-obamacare/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-18T14:45:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:35:59.360Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Weighs in on Future of Health Care Reform og:description: He gave Congress two options og:url: https://time.com/4862426/trump-healthcare-twitter-obamacare/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9425dde9e1b48b8c/6988d618656a3fabc4bd0df5/donald-trump-obamacare.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 A Made In America Product Showcase og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Weighs in on Future of Health Care Reform twitter:description: He gave Congress two options twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9425dde9e1b48b8c/6988d618656a3fabc4bd0df5/donald-trump-obamacare.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Gave Congress Two Options to Handle Health Care. 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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=25396e46-bd49-4d4e-9479-14e5ce4306ed&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jul 18, 2017 2:45 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while waiting to speak during a Made in America event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, July 17, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while waiting to speak during a Made in America event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, July 17, 2017. Bloomberg-Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jul 18, 2017 2:45 PM UTC President Trump staked out two dramatically different positions on how to handle health care over the course of a few hours on Tuesday. After two more Republican senators said they [would vote against the Senate health care bill](http://time.com/4862315/health-care-bill-collapse-crossroads/?xid=homepage) on Monday, Trump called for lawmakers to [repeal the Affordable Care Act first](https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/887288171456811009?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Enews%7Ctwgr%5Etweet), then use the impending collapse of the individual insurance market to force Democrats to negotiate. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/887134287350439936) On Tuesday morning, he appeared to argue instead that Congress should leave the law in place without fixing any of its issues, and then use those problems to bring Democrats to the table later. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/887280380423938048) Both strategies rely on the same principle: forcing Democrats to come together with Republicans to overturn the law by threatening major problems with the health insurance market. It doesn’t appear that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would approve of either approach, however. Earlier this month, the Kentucky Republican said that if the GOP health care bill failed, Senate Republicans [would need to work with Democrats](https://apnews.com/0681b151cc1641e6b355256ef710566b/McConnell-says-limited-bill-needed-if-GOP-health-bill-dies) to make minor fixes to the Affordable Care Act to keep the law from failing in some states. “No action is not an alternative,” McConnell said during a stop in Kentucky. “We’ve got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4862426/trump-healthcare-twitter-obamacare/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4862426/trump-healthcare-twitter-obamacare/"},"headline":"President Trump Gave Congress Two Options to Handle Health Care. 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