--- title: Donald Trump Responds to AHCA Failure: Full Transcript description: Read what President Donald Trump said in his remarks about the failure of the Republican health care bill on Friday canonical: https://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-24T21:57:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T08:26:02.076Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Trump's Response to the Republican Health Care Bill Failure og:description: "Let Obamacare explode" og:url: https://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54db007b7fde311e/6988bfe7fb4eac949289140b/donald-trump-ahca-transcript.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 Speaks After House GOP Pulls Vote On American Health Care Act og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Trump's Response to the Republican Health Care Bill Failure twitter:description: "Let Obamacare explode" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54db007b7fde311e/6988bfe7fb4eac949289140b/donald-trump-ahca-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Trump's Response to the Republican Health Care Bill 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=e253ecfb-9695-4800-8b0a-689077e1dff2&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump: It's the Democrats' Fault the Health Care Bill Failed [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump: It's the Democrats' Fault the Health Care Bill Failed](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ySPMTcST.m3u8) (1:44)  _Published 2017-03-24. President Donald Trump blamed Democrats on Friday for the failure of the GOP health care bill that would have replaced the Affordable Care Act._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 24, 2017 9:57 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 24, 2017 9:57 PM UTC President Donald Trump [faulted Democrats](http://time.com/4713021/donald-trump-republican-ahca-failure-democrats/) on Friday over the [failure of the Republican health care bill](http://time.com/4712590/ahca-donald-trump-republicans-mistakes/). House Republicans [withdrew the bill](http://time.com/4712883/ahca-paul-ryan-donald-trump-no-vote-obamacare/?xid=homepage) Friday, when it became clear they [lacked the votes](http://time.com/4712627/ahca-republicans-fall-short-votes/) for it to pass — a [blow to their promise](http://time.com/4712852/ahca-donald-trump-obamacare-repeal-failure/) to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “Perhaps the best thing that could happen is exactly what happened today, because we’ll end up with a truly great health care bill in the future after this mess known as Obamacare explodes,” Trump said. Read the complete transcript of Trump’s remarks from the Oval Office: --- > “” --- ## Transcript Pass the bill in the house without any democratic support. Why do you think you are enable to craft to deal among the republican part? Well, we were very close. We were just probably anywhere from 10 to 15 votes short. Could've of even been closer than that, you'll never know because you never know how they vote. But in the end, I think we would've been ten votes, maybe closer. And it's very hard to get almost 100 %. You're talking about a very, very large number of votes among any group. We were very close to doing it. But when you get no votes from the other side, meaning the Democrats, it's really a difficult situation. Will you reach out to Democrats now? No I think we have to let Obamacare go it's way for a little while, and we'll see how things go. I'd love to see it do well, but it can't, I mean it can't. It's not a question of gee I hope it does well, I would love it to do well. I want great healthcare for people of this nation, but it can't do well. It's imploding, and soon will explode. And it's not gonna be pretty. So the Democrats don't want to see that. So they're gonna reach out when they're ready. And whenever they're ready, we're ready. And I never said, I guess I'm here, what, 64 days, I never said repeal and replace Obamacare. You've all heard my speeches. I never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days. I have a long time But I wanna have a great healthcare bill and plan and we will. It will happen . And it won't be in the very distant future. I really believe that with some Democrat support, that will happen and it will be an even better bill. I think this was a very good bill. I think it will be even better The next time around. And I don't think that's gonna be in too long a period of time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/"},"headline":"Read President Trump's Response to the Republican Health Care Bill Failure","datePublished":"2017-03-24T21:57:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T08:26:02.076Z","description":"\"Let Obamacare explode\"","url":"https://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Health Care","republicans","Congress","White House","Healthcare","transcript","transcripts","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54db007b7fde311e/6988bfe7fb4eac949289140b/donald-trump-ahca-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt54db007b7fde311e/6988bfe7fb4eac949289140b/donald-trump-ahca-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Speaks After House GOP Pulls Vote On American Health Care Act","caption":"President Trump Speaks After House GOP Pulls Vote On American Health Care Act","creditText":"Olivier Douliery—Pool/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/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/","name":"Read President Trump's Response to the Republican Health Care Bill Failure"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump: It's the Democrats' Fault the Health Care Bill Failed","description":"President Donald Trump blamed Democrats on Friday for the failure of the GOP health care bill that would have replaced the Affordable Care Act.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ySPMTcST/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-03-24T21:27:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ySPMTcST.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/","duration":"PT1M44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4713107/donald-trump-transcript-ahca-bill/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```