Someone told Trump he secretly repealed Obamacare — and he believed it

So someone on his team — his daughter Ivanka? Son-in-law Jared Kushner? Chief of staff John Kelly? — told him his bill did much more than ensure his children will inherit billions of tax-free dollars and his wealthy Wall Street friends will pocket even more cash.

Someone told him his tax scam also secretly repealed Obamacare.

Trump: “We have essentially repealed Obamacare and we will come up with something that will be much better” https://t.co/JeaGLc5EuE

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 20, 2017

TRUMP: We have essentially repealed Obamacare, and we’ll come up with something that will be much better, whether it’s block grants or whether it’s taking what we have and doing something terrific. But Obamacare has been repealed in this bill. We didn’t want to bring it up. I told people specifically be quiet with the fake news media because I don’t want them talking too much about it. Cuz I didn’t know how people would — But now that it’s approved, I can say the individual mandate on health care, where you had to pay not to have insurance — think of that one, you pay not to have insurance — the individual mandate has been repealed.

There are so many things wrong with Trump’s boast, it’s hard to know where to begin. But the idea that the bill repeals Obamacare, when it certainly does not — “essentially” or otherwise — has to be one of the most outrageous claims Trump has made in his first year in office. Which is saying a lot.

It’s true that the bill undoes the individual mandate, and that will certainly do great harm to the nation’s health care system and in all likelihood, drive up the costs of insurance even more. But that still doesn’t repeal Obamacare.

And for Trump to believe that he somehow engineered this secret plan is outright laughable. Countless reports from those working on the tax bill have said Trump clearly has no idea what’s in it. The bill was led by Republicans in Congress like Speaker Paul Ryan, who’ve been trying to pass this shameful redistribution of wealth upward since Trump was still just a reality TV show host.

But letting him believe he somehow pulled a fast one on the American people is apparently what he needs right now. It’s also a very bizarre thing for him to brag about.

The tax scam is already deeply unpopular — but so was the attempt to repeal Obamacare. In fact, the more Trump and Republicans tried to repeal it, the more popular it became.

Which is why, as Republicans are facing increasing odds of losing their majority in next year’s midterms, it’s a questionable strategy to boast that on top of giving tax cuts to billionaires and corporations, Trump secretly robbed people of their health care too.

No wonder it’s looking more and more like the GOP might lose not only its control of the House, but even the Senate too.