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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World

Trump on health care: it’s ‘complicated’

Who knew?
Who knew? Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

1. Stunningly not stupidly simple

After a meeting with health insurance executives, Donald Trump said they have a “very good” plan to replace Obamacare, adding, remarkably, “Now I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject.”

Repeal and we have no idea

Nobody ever said it would be easy. Oh wait I did, like a billion times.
Nobody ever said it would be easy. Oh wait I did, like a billion times. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Updated

'Unbelievably complex'

We have come up with a solution that’s really, really I think very good. Now I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated … Tax-cutting has never been that easy but it’s a tiny little ant compared to what we’re talking about with Obamacare.

– Donald Trump

2. Trump aides counsel caution

Top Trump advisers, including dimpled cipher Jared Kushner and combative nationalist Stephen Bannon, “have emphasized the potential political costs to moving aggressively” to repeal Obamacare, the Washington Post reported.

Obamacare popularity up

Brain trust.
Brain trust. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

3. Bombs not food

Details of Trump’s first draft budget began to circulate Monday. It would allot an additional $54bn to the military while cutting the state department, environmental protection agency and non-defence programs. Does that add up?

That does not appear to add up

Trump’s budget discipline write large.
Trump’s budget discipline write large. Photograph: Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images

‘Meat ax’ budget

It is clear from this budget blueprint that President Trump fully intends to break his promises to working families by taking a meat ax to programs that benefit the middle class. A cut this steep almost certainly means cuts to agencies that protect consumers from Wall Street excess and protect clean air and water.

– Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer

The people's budget

4. Threats on Jewish centers

Jewish centers and schools around the country faced another wave of bomb threats after a Philadelphia cemetery was vandalized. Press secretary Sean Spicer condemned the “cowardly destruction”. Trump was mum.

Wave of bomb threats

At Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia Monday.
At Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia Monday. Photograph: Mark Makela/Getty Images

5. George W Bush, defender of freedom

In a Today show interview, former president George W Bush slammed Trump, not by name, saying that he, Bush, supported a welcoming immigration policy and praising the media as “indispensable to democracy”.

Bush <3 media now

This month at a college hoops game in Dallas.
This month at a college hoops game in Dallas. Photograph: LM Otero/AP

6. Nothing to see here, continued

The House intelligence committee chairman, Devin Nunes, said calls for an independent investigation into alleged contacts between aides to Donald Trump and Russian intelligence sources could amount to a “witch hunt”.

Oversight: a case study

If you live in Brooklyn you may have drunk here.
If you live in Brooklyn you may have drunk here. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

...and another thing:

...and another thing:

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