Meanwhile, people like legislative affairs director Marc Short and Vice President Mike Pence would be trying to convince those same members to get on board with the bill backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan. “The White House was speaking with many different voices and each person was hearing only what they wanted to hear,” said one senior Republican familiar with the conversations. “If you were in the Freedom Caucus, you were under the impression you could hold out.”
By the time the House finally passed a health care bill in early May, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill had determined that the president’s involvement – and that of the White House more broadly – was more trouble than it was worth. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear to Trump that he was to play no role in ensuring the bill passed the Senate – that he should, in essence, leave it to the professionals.
The failure of the so-called professionals to pass that measure, on July 28, laid bare the ideological crack-up of the Republican party, which had campaigned for seven years on rolling back Obamacare, and underscored the inability of congressional leaders to deliver on their promises.
Throughout the debate on Capitol Hill, it became clear that Republican lawmakers were far less committed to rolling back President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement than they had claimed to be. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who had voted dozens of times as a House member to repeal Obamacare, explained her hesitation to back the Senate bill, telling reporters that she “didn’t come to D.C. to hurt people.” Trump’s election seemed to have revealed to lawmakers like Capito that their voters, even in deep red states like West Virginia, weren’t as enthusiastic about entitlement cuts as they had once thought.
And though Trump himself had not played a constructive role in securing the passage of the legislation – memorably calling the House bill “mean” and leaning on the Senate to amend it – the failure of congressional Republicans was a vindication for him in one regard. The fecklessness of the country’s political leaders had been one of his central campaign themes, and the demise of the health care bill, by a one-vote margin, threw it into stark relief.
It was something he wasted no time pointing out to the public, blasting McConnell on Twitter repeatedly throughout the month of August. “Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn't get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!” he tweeted on Aug. 10.
It was another dispute that put the divisions in the party on display – and gave voice to the grievances of the voters who lifted him to office.
“Do you think you’re being properly staffed?”
John Kelly, then Secretary of Homeland Security, posed the blunt question to the president after attending a scattered meeting at the White House, months before he would eventually join the West Wing team.
Trump didn’t respond to him in the moment. But the question lingered in his mind. In June the president revived the conversation – “Remember when you asked me if I was being well-served?” Trump asked him – and told Kelly he needed his help.
The arrival of a four-star Marine general in the White House last July, replacing Priebus, was greeted with high hopes both internally and externally. Many were looking for Trump to make a course correction, and Kelly embodied that change.
“He’s always respected the military structure,” said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “He wanted more order, and he knew someone with Kelly’s background and operations style would be someone who would bring more structure.”
That meant an immediate shedding both of people and of personnel, once Kelly agreed to take the job. The changes came quickly, with Kelly making it clear that the people in the building and in meetings would be there because they were there to serve the country, not themselves, and not even simply the president.
Names were removed from the White House security list, meaning that insiders like former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former deputy campaign manager David Bossie, could no longer come and go as they pleased, without making an appointment.
Aides whom Kelly considered disruptive were pushed out. Chief strategist Steve Bannon left the White House in August. Trump’s longest-serving and closest aide, Keith Schiller, left the administration, in part, associates said, because he clashed with Kelly. With Schiller left the personal cell phone that many longtime Trump allies called to reach the boss. Kushner and Ivanka Trump agreed to report to Kelly, not directly to Trump, and their influence and presence in meetings became more limited.
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