to get some insight, i am joined by brian klaus, the author of the despot accomplice. but for now let s focus on u.s. politics, brian. with trump s loss of the health care legislation, he is trying to put the blame squarely on the democrats. is that an argument that will work among his supporters? i don t think so. the republicans remember voted 60 different times while president obama was in office to repeal obamacare. when it came to governing, they did nothing. they have continually said the democrats are to blame. i think that s a political mistake to continually blame it. the bill was polling at 17% support.
americans were not behind it. the more the white house reminds people that the democrats derailed unpopular legislation, the more that will play into the hands of democrats going into the 2018 mid-terms. brian, this is within the first 100 days of president trump s administration. what this is likely to do to his very ambitious agenda going forward? it is a huge problem for him. the white house did not back away from claims that trump was the grand deal-maker, the closer. sean spicer used those terms repeatedly. there was no deals and no close. a lot of people are saying we will take care of tax reform and infrastructure. those are extremely complicated. tax reform is extremely con den chun. the republicans have to face they have a divide in their caucus. the far right does not see remotely eye to eye with the republican moderates, many of
say your health care is going to explode and follow it up 100 characters later with do not worry is a contradictory message. a leader needs to take responsibility for the fact that this is really important to a lot of americans. it is something that takes a lot of time. it is something that takes a lot of consideration. to be able to fix it and get it right, it is did i have. trump needs to come together with democrats and republicans and say, look, obamacare isn t perfect. it takes some technocratic expertise, by trump nids to learn b needs to learn it but he can. it takes a little bit of sobriety and pause but say let s figure it out and let s get it right. there are problems with obamacare but they can be fixed. brian klaus from the london school of economics, thanks for your insight. thanks for having me. now, let s move to the u.s.