On Friday morning, when it was still unclear if the GOP would round up enough votes to pass the Republican healthcare proposal, we noted that Bloomberg reported that as a "Plan B" contingency plan, Trump was preparing to sacrifice Paul Ryan, to wit "several Trump associates have already laid groundwork to blame the speaker" as well as potentially Reince Priebus.
Doubling down on his 'presidential' message last night, President Trump just told the American people "don't worry" about the healthcare bill...
ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE. Do not worry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2017
And also from his POTUS account...
Asian shares and S&P futures rose on optimism that today's rescheduled U.S. vote on health care will pass following Trump's Ultimatum to the Freedom Caucus. European stocks gave up some of Thursday’s gains, falling for the fourth time in five days, and moving further away from a 15-month high reached a week ago while the yen weakened for the first time in nine days before the long awaited U.S. health-care vote that has dominated market sentiment this week. Oil was headed for a third weekly drop this month. Economic data include durable goods orders, Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI.
It is not just the Freedom Caucus tails of the Republican Party that are holding out from the Obamacare reform vote, GOP centrists in the House are fleeing from their party’s first major legislative test of President Trump's reign.
As The Hill reports, centrist defections in the last 24 hours include Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), the co-chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, which has roughly 50 members.
Update 7: According to White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, despite the failure of talks with the Freedom Caucus, the vote will still be held "tonight."
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Update 6:
Freedom Caucus members leaving the White House after a meeting with President Trump said they have not reached a deal that would allow them to support an repeal-and-replace vote on Thursday, while the White House said it had made a final "take it or leave it" offer to the Freedom Caucus on the Health bill.