Trump on health care: it’s ‘complicated’
10.18pm GMT
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.”
Updated at 10.25pm GMT
10.18pm GMT
'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
10.17pm GMT
‘Nobody knew’
10.17pm GMT
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.
10.17pm GMT
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
10.16pm GMT
‘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
10.15pm GMT
The people's budget
Trump wants to
1. "make the government lean and accountable to the people"
2. hike defense spending by $54 billionhttps://t.co/aomcNNGK4N— Josh Greenman (@joshgreenman) February 27, 2017
10.15pm GMT
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.
10.15pm GMT
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”.
10.14pm GMT
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”.
10.13pm GMT
...and another thing:
Melania Trump says Michelle Obama's White House vegetable garden is staying put https://t.co/KmzrAB6SCF
— Grub Street (@grubstreet) February 23, 2017
10.13pm GMT
...and another thing:
To begin his White House speech to the governors last night, Trump made this joke about Melania's decorating: pic.twitter.com/kPgFF5Szkf
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 27, 2017
