--- title: Donald Trump: GOP Senators 'Look Like Fools' for Health Care description: In his latest tweetstorm, Trump called for the end of the filibuster rule that requires 60 votes, saying it was "very outdated" canonical: https://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-29T15:57:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:47:20.263Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump: Republican Senators 'Look Like Fools' for Losing Health Care Vote og:description: "They look like fools and are just wasting time......" the President tweeted og:url: https://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede5972170ea4571/6988d6e9196cf438a2041275/donald-trump-senate-health-care-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Donald Trump presents a demonstration of a pharmaceutical glass packaging initiative, in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump: Republican Senators 'Look Like Fools' for Losing Health Care Vote twitter:description: "They look like fools and are just wasting time......" the President tweeted twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede5972170ea4571/6988d6e9196cf438a2041275/donald-trump-senate-health-care-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump: Republican Senators 'Look Like Fools' for Losing Health Care Vote > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jul 29, 2017 3:57 PM UTC  President Donald Trump looks at the press during a demonstration of a pharmaceutical glass packaging initiative on July, 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump looks at the press during a demonstration of a pharmaceutical glass packaging initiative on July, 20, 2017 in Washington, DC.Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jul 29, 2017 3:57 PM UTC President Donald Trump slammed the Republican faction of the Senate Saturday morning, tweeting that their [failure to get the 51 votes needed to pass legislation like Friday’s “skinny” repeal of Obamacare](http://time.com/4877796/health-care-senate-john-mccain-susan-collins-lisa-murkowski/) made them “look like fools.” In his latest tweetstorm, Trump called for the [end of the filibuster rule](http://time.com/4656705/supreme-court-filibuster-donald-trump-neil-gorsuch/) that requires 60 votes, saying it is “very outdated.” But abolishing the filibuster wouldn’t have allowed Republicans to pass the proposed health care legislation, anyway. Though the bill was crafted under the budget reconciliation rules in order to avoid a 60-vote requirement, the GOP only garnered 49 votes, one shy of the 50 that would have required Vice President Mike Pence to step in and break the tie in favor of the repeal. Still, Trump fumed on Twitter. “Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party, allows 8 Dems to control country. 200 Bills sit in Senate. A JOKE!” he tweeted, later adding: “Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don’t go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time……” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891257113565163520) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891260230876659713) He called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to scrap the filibuster. But McConnell doesn’t have the power to do that on his own, and has made it clear in the past that he does not support such a measure. “It would fundamentally change the way the Senate has worked for a very long time. We’re not going to do that,” [McConnell said](http://time.com/4763816/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-filibuster/) in May after Trump advocated for a government shutdown in order to implement a 51-vote threshold. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891259245106278400) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891263843908947969) The latest effort to repeal Obamacare fell apart early Friday morning when three Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona — voted against the bill. For now, President Obama’s signature legislation remains in place. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/"},"headline":"President Trump: Republican Senators 'Look Like Fools' for Losing Health Care Vote","datePublished":"2017-07-29T15:57:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:47:20.263Z","description":"Then he called for the end of the filibuster rule — again","url":"https://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/","keywords":["Senate","Health Care","Donald Trump","onetime","AHCA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede5972170ea4571/6988d6e9196cf438a2041275/donald-trump-senate-health-care-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltede5972170ea4571/6988d6e9196cf438a2041275/donald-trump-senate-health-care-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Donald Trump presents a demonstration of a pharmaceutical glass packaging initiative, in Washington, DC.","caption":"President Donald Trump presents a demonstration of a pharmaceutical glass packaging initiative, in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post/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/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4879548/donald-trump-health-care-republican-senators/","name":"President Trump: Republican Senators 'Look Like Fools' for Losing Health Care Vote"}}]}] ```