--- title: Trump's Telltale Sign That He Got Health Care, Taxes Wrong description: President Trump doesn't like to admit when he's wrong, but he has some telltale signs when he thinks it. canonical: https://time.com/5433053/president-trump-telltale-sign-health-care-taxes-wrong/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-24T16:15:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:03:56.241Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump's Telltale Sign That He Got Health Care and Taxes Wrong og:description: President Trump doesn't like to admit when he's wrong, but he has some telltale signs when he thinks it. og:url: https://time.com/5433053/president-trump-telltale-sign-health-care-taxes-wrong/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0dd506af21638a38/6988cc220a4a22efb79ce0c5/trump-what-next-for-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: trump-what-next-for-health-care. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump's Telltale Sign That He Got Health Care and Taxes Wrong twitter:description: President Trump doesn't like to admit when he's wrong, but he has some telltale signs when he thinks it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0dd506af21638a38/6988cc220a4a22efb79ce0c5/trump-what-next-for-health-care.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Telltale Sign That He Got Health Care and Taxes Wrong > 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=21674bde-0be5-4cd2-82d6-1eae07d4581c&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Signs The GOP Tax Bill Into Law [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Signs The GOP Tax Bill Into Law](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3iWi0gjT.m3u8) (2:02)  _Published 2017-12-22. President Donald Trump has signed into law a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul package._ by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 24, 2018 4:15 PM UTC by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Oct 24, 2018 4:15 PM UTC President Trump doesn’t like to admit when he’s wrong, but he has some telltale signs when he thinks it. And like a poker player drumming his fingers, his tell is giving away right now that he thinks he got taxes and health care wrong in his first year in office. First, let’s start with the facts. In May of 2017, House Republicans voted to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, in part by making it easier for [insurers to raise premiums](https://www.politifact.com/north-carolina/statements/2018/oct/22/kathy-manning/fact-checking-kathy-mannings-ad-ted-budd-and-pre-e/) on people with pre-existing conditions in states that received waivers. (The bill died in the Senate.) That December, Trump signed into law a tax cut which provides short-term cuts for all income groups, but would lead to [higher taxes for lower-income Americans and lower taxes for the wealthy](https://www.politifact.com/north-carolina/statements/2018/oct/22/kathy-manning/fact-checking-kathy-mannings-ad-ted-budd-and-pre-e/) after 10 years. Neither move was popular with the public. Several surveys from June of 2017 showed the GOP health care bill was [supported by less than 20% of registered voters](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/28/health-care-polls-republicans-240062), while a Politico/Morning Consult poll in June of 2018 found that [just 37% of registered voters supported the tax cuts](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/27/poll-gop-tax-law-656387). Democrats have capitalized on this in their campaigns, [running ads attacking Republican incumbents](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBQwX29rvmQ) who voted for the GOP health care bill, while [using the tax cuts as a way to raise concerns](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrats-find-new-ways-talk-about-entitlement-cuts-campaign-s-n923106) about potential cuts to Medicare and Social Security. In recent days, Trump has responded by making two bold pronouncements that have little grounding in the facts: that Republicans will protect people with pre-existing conditions, and that he is working on a big middle-class tax cut that will be voted on soon. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1055077740792160256) “We’re going to be putting in a 10 percent tax cut for middle-income families. It’s going to be put in next week,” he told attendees at an Oct. 22 rally in Houston. “We’ve been working on it for a few months, a 10 percent brand-new — and that is in addition to the big tax cuts that you’ve already gotten.” To say that these claims are fantastical is almost an understatement. Apart from the failed House health care bill, the Trump Administration has [sided with plaintiffs in a lawsuit](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/06/14/president-trumps-flip-flop-on-coverage-for-pre-existing-conditions/?utm%5Fterm=.0822eab00532) who are arguing that the Affordable Care Act’s provisions on preexisting conditions are unconstitutional. A group of 10 Republican senators have introduced a bill that promises to protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. But it would remove limits on how much insurers can charge them, and allow insurers to decline to include specific coverage for their condition in the policy they offer that individual — which is why [experts say it would not provide much protection](https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/oct/17/pre-existing-conditions-does-any-gop-proposal-matc/). And there’s simply no plan for the middle-class tax cut that Trump promised. Members of Congress and even some in the White House [were unaware of any proposal that Trump was referring to](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-the-service-of-whim-officials-scramble-to-make-trumps-false-assertions-real/2018/10/23/0c271586-d6de-11e8-83a2-d1c3da28d6b6%5Fstory.html?tid=a%5Finl%5Fmanual) when he made the claim at the Houston rally. Congress isn’t even in session and it has not passed the precursor legislation that would be necessary to even take up a tax cut this year. In both cases, Trump is essentially admitting that his approach on two signature issues was not popular and may end up costing some Republican lawmakers their jobs in the midterms. He’s not alone. After repeatedly saying they were going to campaign on the tax cuts in the midterms, Republicans [largely abandoned that line of argument](https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-largely-abandon-running-on-trumps-tax-cuts), and candidates such as [Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker](https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2018/oct/18/tony-evers/scott-walker-says-he-would-cover-pre-existing-cond/) are now making similar claims about protecting people with pre-existing conditions. Certainly, it would be easier for Trump to admit that he was wrong than to repeatedly make a dubious claim without evidence, which contradicts his own prior actions — and some presidents have used a [“thumping”](http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/08/bush.transcript3/) or [“shellacking”](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/03/AR2010110303997.html) in the midterms to correct course in just that way. But Trump has said that admitting mistakes makes you look weak. In his recent book, “Fear,” legendary Washington _Post_ reporter Bob Woodward writes that Trump [exploded over the perception that he had backtracked](https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/04/politics/woodward-book-trump-charlottesville/index.html) in his much-criticized remarks on the violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. “You never make those concessions,” Trump reportedly told an aide. “You never apologize. I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. Why look weak?” Trump has [even joked about this tendency in public](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-kim-jong-un-meeting-summit/h%5F97ccc50308b493e9f22e108ef7402249). After saying that he “really believes” North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will follow through on promises he made about nuclear weapons, Trump said that he might be wrong. “I may be wrong and stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey I was wrong,'” he said. “I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of an excuse.” In this case, though, Trump has offered no excuse, nor has he tried to [claim that a perceived failure was actually a secret success](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/never-give-an-inch-trump-keeps-touting-perceived-failures-as-successes/2018/09/12/12801b80-b6a9-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.1473b3a4a206), another common rhetorical technique he uses. Instead, he’s simply made two sweeping claims that the truth is the opposite of what it appears to be. ## Transcript So I'll sign this today rather having a very big formal ceremony in two weeks when we were going to do it. Because I didn't want you folks to say that I wasn't keeping my promise. I am keeping my promise. I am signing it before Christmas. I said that the bill would be on my desk before Christmas. And you are holding me literally to that. So we did a rush job today. It's not fancy, but it's the oval office. It's the great oval office. And just to conclude, our country's doing very well. We've tremendously cut regulations. Legislative approvals For which I'm given no credit in the main stream media, we have, I believe it's 88, which is number one in the history of our country. Second now, is Harry Truman. Harry Truman had more legislative approvals than any other president and a record long held. And we beat him on legislative approvals, for which I get no credit. A lot of people say he needed this because he has had no legislative approvals. Well if you look at VA Accountability Act and so many other bills having to do with the VA. Having to do with the military, having to do with many things. We have more legislative victories. Than any other president, not including this. But this is the capper, because this is, again, the biggest tax cut, biggest reform of all time. So it's an honor to have you with us, and we will sign this right now. This is something I'm very proud of, great for our country, great for the American people. Thank you all. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So, we won't do the whole thing, but this is basically what it is. That's your bill. 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