According to an article in yesterday’s Politico, the GOP leadership is putting a great deal of faith in Trump’s ability to close the deal on the Obamacare replacement bill. The idea is that the negotiator-in-chief can mediate away the differences between the conservative and moderate dissenters and provide political cover for the former in red states.
On its face, it makes some sense. Trump obviously has negotiating skills, even though they are undoubtedly overblown, and he is invested in getting a bill, not in any policy inherent in the bill. On the other hand, he has made it clear that he views negotiations as a zero-sum game in which the strong prevail, which is not an appropriate approach for a mediator, he is unfamiliar with critical policy details, and he can’t provide any cover to moderate opponents of the deal. Whether he can deliver is, therefore, an open question.