In 2000, Trump made a powerful argument against his own health care bill

President Donald Trump is now pushing for a bill that not only does the opposite of what he called for on the campaign trail — “insurance for everybody” — but does the opposite of what he called for back in 2000.

Ronald Klain, a former Obama administration official, tweeted out an excerpt from Trump’s 2000 book, The America We Deserve:

The American Health Care Act (AHCA), the bill Republicans are pushing through the House of Representatives with Trump’s vocal support, makes the problem Trump noted in his book much worse. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would reduce the number of insured Americans by 24 million by 2026, leaving a total of 52 million Americans uninsured that year. That’s obviously more than the 42 million Trump found so alarming that he argued letting the problem go on violated one of America’s founding principles.

But there are questions about whether Trump even knows what the AHCA does. As Ezra Klein wrote for Vox, Trump has “spent the past week fighting for a health care bill he didn’t campaign on, didn’t draft, doesn’t understand, doesn’t like to talk about, and can’t defend. Rather than forcing the Republican establishment to come around to his principles, he’s come around to theirs — with disastrous results.”

Trump, though, doesn’t seem to have really understood health care when he wrote The America We Deserve, either. As Vox’s Dylan Matthews wrote after reading the 2000 book:

It seems clear from his discussion of single-payer health care that he doesn't actually know what the term means. What he proposes is converting the tax break for employer-provided insurance into a tax credit individuals can use — as in Paul Ryan’s and Tom Price's plans for replacing Obamacare. He attacks Hillary Clinton's much-milder-than-single-payer health plan from 1994, saying, "We don't want more government control of the healthcare industry."

He’s not liberal — he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

We have a request

Vox's journalism is free because we believe that everyone deserves to understand the world that they live in. That kind of knowledge helps create better citizens, neighbors, friends, parents, consumers and stewards of this planet. In short, understanding benefits everyone. You can join in on this mission by making a financial gift to Vox today. Reader support helps keep our work free, for everyone. Will you join us?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$95/year

$120/year

$250/year

$350/year

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $120/year

Yes, I'll give $120/year

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via