--- 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: 2026-02-23T04:02:16.227Z 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Trump's Response to the Republican Health Care Bill Failure  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 24, 2017 9:57 PM UTC  President Donald Trump reacts with Vice President Mike Pence (R) after Republicans abruptly pulled their health care bill from the House floor, in the Oval Office of the White House on March 24, 2017. President Donald Trump reacts with Vice President Mike Pence (R) after Republicans abruptly pulled their health care bill from the House floor, in the Oval Office of the White House on March 24, 2017.Olivier Douliery—Pool/Getty Images  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: --- > “” --- ```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":"2026-02-23T04:02:16.227Z","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"}}]}] ```