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President Donald Trump was simply saying nice things to an ally when he called Australia's universal healthcare system better than the U.S. system, and he does not think his country should adopt a similar approach, the White House said on Friday.

"The president was complimenting a foreign leader on the operations of their healthcare system," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news briefing. "It didn't mean anything more than that."

Trump raised eyebrows when he told Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday in New York, "You have better health care than we do."

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Trump spoke shortly after he led a White House rally with Republicans from the House of Representatives, who had just passed legislation to overturn much of former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law and move further away from a guarantee of universal coverage.

That measure, opposed by Democrats, must clear the Senate before Trump can sign it into law.

"Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we doeverybody does," Trump tweeted on Friday. "ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great."

Independent scorekeepers at the Congressional Budget Office have not yet analyzed the bill, but they estimated an earlier version would have led to 24 million fewer Americans with insurance coverage than under current law.

Australia's government plays a larger role in its health system. The country provides free hospital treatment and subsidized medical care for all residents through a publicly funded program. Roughly half of Australians choose to buy private coverage, which provides them with greater choices.

Huckabee Sanders said Trump's remarks do not mean he thinks the United States should adopt a similar system.

"I think he believes that they have a good healthcare system for Australia," she said. "What works in Australia may not work in the United States."

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Donald Trump Does Not Think US Should Adopt Australian-Style Healthcare Despite His Praise - Newsweek

Like his approval rating, tweeter-in-chief Donald Trump has seen his Twitter engagement drop during his first 100 days in office.

New data analysis conducted by the Associated Presshas shown thatlikes, retweets, replies and quote tweets on Trumps postshave been trending downwarddropping by the thousandssince he took office in January.

Before his 50th day in office, a little over 32 percent of his tweets averaged around 60,000 engagements including retweets, replies, and quote tweets, according to the AP.But after day 50, no day has reached that level of engagement. Before then, 60 percent of the days tweets got over 50,000 engagements. After, only three havenine percent.

Read also:We Found the 9 Tweets Donald Trump Has Deleted Since He Was Sworn In as President

The analysisconducted in partnership with the media analytics nonprofit Corticolooked at the 495 tweets from Trumps personal account, @realDonaldTrump. It also pulledinformation from other users profiles, networks and tweets to assess their age, gender and political leanings in order to reveal moretrends and insights regarding who engages with Trumps tweets and how. According to the study:

The analysis also revealed some interesting information about specific Trump tweets:

Now the questions is, will Trump tweet this is just fake news?

Read the rest here:
Donald Trump's Tweets Are Getting Fewer Likes Now That He's POTUS - Observer

But the President joked Thursday during a White House ceremony that the sisters have something he deeply desires: smart attorneys.

"Do you mind if I use your lawyers?" Trump said with a grin, as a nun in a gray habit laughed. "I could use some good lawyers, too."

The Little Sisters are represented by the Becket Fund, a nonprofit firm that focuses on religious liberty, who helped the nuns gain a key exemption from the Affordable Care Act.

That case -- and religious freedom writ large -- is what brought together the nuns, the President, and a few dozen religious leaders in the Rose Garden on Thursday. The stated purpose was Trump's signing of an executive order, which he said would prevent the federal government from "bullying and even punishing Americans for following their religious beliefs."

Both liberals and conservative agree, however, that Trump's order accomplishes less than advertised. Robert George, a Princeton University professor and leading expert on religious liberty, called the executive order "meaningless" and "a betrayal."

Still, this President makes news in bunches, not bites, and Thursday was no exception.

In addition to signing the executive order, Trump announced he would travel later this month to the Vatican, setting up his first face-to-face meeting with Pope Francis. He also said he will visit Saudi Arabia, a source of extremist Islamic ideology, where the President said he would "begin to construct a new foundation of cooperation" to combat terrorism.

The trip will pose a series of diplomatic challenges for Trump, for whom the world of faith remains unfamiliar turf. Among the religious leaders in the Rose Garden on Thursday, Trump seemed to enjoy himself -- he joked that he prefers their company to Congress -- but it was a bit like watching a tourist stumble into the Sistine Chapel.

Trump referred to two of the country's most powerful Catholics as "my cardinals." He mused that he'd be "out enjoying my life" instead of helping evangelicals if he had lost the election. And he accused HUD Secretary Ben Carson of flouting a law that only applies to the head of non-profit organizations, which Trump should have known is not possible, since it was the focus of the executive order he signed just a few minutes later.

For weeks, rumors had swirled that the Trump administration was considering a sweeping executive order that would grant religious believers, schools and corporations extensive exemptions to federal laws they disagree with, from LGBT protections to reproductive rights.

The 3-page executive order Trump signed on Thursday wasn't that -- not even close, leaving many conservative Christians looking like the boy who wanted a BB gun for Christmas and instead got a pair of socks.

The Heritage Fund's Ryan Anderson, a proponent of strong legal protections for religious liberty, called the executive order "woefully inadequate."

The ACLU, with whom social conservatives rarely agree, agreed, saying the executive order wasn't even worth a lawsuit.

The order's most controversial section directs the federal government not to take adverse action against any "individual, house or worship or other religious organization" that speaks about political issues from a moral perspective.

Why is that important? Since 1954, when Congress passed the Johnson Amendment, religious groups and other nonprofits have been prohibited from participating "directly or indirectly" in political campaigns at risk of losing their tax exemptions.

"Under this rule, if a pastor, priest or imam speaks about issues of public or political importance, they are threatened with the loss of their tax exempt status -- a crippling financial punishment," Trump said on Thursday. "Very, very unfair. But no longer."

Trump had promised to "destroy" the Johnson Amendment after several of his key evangelical advisers, such as Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., told him it threatens their free speech.

Several evangelical groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, which organizes the "Pulpit Freedom" protests, said Trump's religious freedom promises remain unfulfilled.

"Though we appreciate the spirit of today's gesture," said Michael Farris, the group's CEO, "vague instructions to federal agencies simply leaves them wiggle room to ignore that gesture."

The US Catholic Bishops, in their statement on Thursday, didn't even mention the Johnson Amendment.

Instead, the bishops focused on brief language in Trump's order promising regulatory relief for groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, which want exemptions from the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate.

They called the executive order a good beginning.

You know it's a busy news day -- the House also voted to repeal and replace Obamacare -- when an announcement that two of the most powerful people on the planet would soon meet gets barely a blip of attention.

The President said Thursday that he will finally meet Pope Francis later this month, part of a trip that will also take him to the homeland of two of the three Abrahamic faiths: Israel and Saudi Arabia. (The Vatican visit will give Trump an Abrahamic Trifecta.)

The Vatican later confirmed the meeting between the Pope and President, saying it is scheduled for May 24 at the Apostolic Palace.

Trump's aim on the trip is to reach out across religions and countries to combat extremism, senior administration officials told CNN. But it's unclear how he will be received in at least two of his stops.

Both sides backed down. A Vatican spokesman said the Pope wasn't talking in particular about Trump. Trump said, "I don't like fighting with the Pope. I like his personality; I like what he represents."

Likewise, Trump's denigration of Islam and his travel ban on six Muslim-majority nations would seem to make him persona non grata in Saudi Arabia, though the country was not included on the list.

In his announcement on Thursday, Trump said he hopes, while in Saudi Arabia, "to construct a new foundation of cooperation and support with our Muslim allies to combat extremism, terrorism and violence."

By Thursday, Trump's tone had changed. He praised Saudi Arabia's role as the custodian of Islam's two holiest sites, in Mecca and Medina, adding another odd detail to an already bizarre day.

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Donald Trump's big, bizarre religious day - CNN

President Trump boards Air Force One before his departure from Andrews Air Force Base, Md., May 4, 2017. Pablo Martinez MonsivaisAP

(NEW YORK) Donald Trump turned his first trip home as president into a victory lap on Thursday, returning to the city that has largely opposed him while celebrating House passage of legislation undoing much his predecessor's health law.

Trump only received 18 percent of the vote in New York in November's presidential election. Multiple modest protests were held across the city during his visit, some visible from the presidential motorcade as it roared past Wall Street and Manhattan's famed skyscrapers.

His visit was shorter than first expected so that he could commemorate the House vote with a Rose Garden news conference, the White House eager for the appearance of a victory after an uneven first 100 days in office. Slated to be in Manhattan only a few hours, Trump was not expected to visit his home at Trump Tower and pushed back his first-time meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by several hours.

Trump and Turnbull spoke by telephone earlier Thursday and were looking forward to meeting, the White House said.

The leaders were still slated to speak aboard the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of a World War II battle that reinforced the ties between the U.S. and Australia. Both countries' warships and fighter planes engaged the Japanese from May 4-8, 1942, forcing the Japanese navy to retreat for the first time in the war.

His triumphant appearance aboard the World War II carrier was scheduled just hours after jubilant Republicans bused in from Capitol Hill to the White House for the victory lap, an unusually early celebration for the passage of a bill through just one house of Congress. The legislation, which was met with sharp Democratic opposition, squeaked through the House by a vote of 217-213 and faces an uncertain fate in the Senate.

Trump said he was "so confident" that the measure would pass the Senate and vowed that premiums and deductibles would come down.

"People are suffering so badly with the ravages of Obamacare," Trump said.

At one point the president turned to the representatives lined up behind him and, suggesting the victory was especially impressive for a novice politician, exclaimed: "Hey, I'm president! I'm president! Can you believe it?!"

House leaders came through with the votes to give Trump a major political win more than a month after Republicans' first attempt to pass a health care bill went down in a humiliating defeat.

Known as the American Healthcare Act, the bill has yet to receive a price tag from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and is opposed by a number of physician and health care groups, including the American Medical Association, amid concerns it could strip millions of Americans of their coverage, including those with pre-existing medical conditions.

Trump and Turnbull were expected to discuss North Korea's missile testing and security and economic issues, as well as Turnbull's deal with Obama for the United States to resettle up to 1,250 mostly Muslim refugees from Africa, the Mideast and Asia who are housed in immigration camps on the Pacific island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

The agreement was a source of friction when Trump and Turnbull spoke by telephone shortly after Trump took office Jan. 20. The conversation made headlines, and Trump later tweeted about the "dumb deal." But Vice President Mike Pence assured Turnbull during a visit to Australia last month that the Trump administration will honor the deal, but "that doesn't mean we admire the agreement."

Manhattan is where Trump made a name by transforming himself from real-estate developer into a celebrity businessman and now president. During the campaign, Trump would fly thousands of miles back to New York to sleep in his own bed, leaving the impression that he would make frequent trips home after he became president.

But he hasn't set foot in the city since leaving on Jan. 19 for Washington to be inaugurated into office the following day. But now deeply unpopular in his hometown, Trump said in an interview last week that he so far has avoided returning to the city because the trips are expensive for the government and would inconvenience New Yorkers.

Trump's revised schedule was to take him straight from a waterside heliport to the Intrepid, docked on the Hudson River and relatively isolated from the rest of the city. But some protesters lined up along the West Side Highway, confined to pens near the Intrepid while holding up signs saying "Dump Trump" and chanted "Not my president." Some passing cars honked in support.

"We want him to know the resistance remains, even in his hometown," said Ruthie Adler, 30, a Manhattan waitress.

Trump's wife, Melania, and son Barron live at Trump Tower most of the time while the 11-year-old finishes the school year. The president was not expected to spend the night there, instead slated to sleep at his golf club an hour away in Bedminister, New Jersey.

___

Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, and Deepti Hajela and Deniz Cam in New York contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump Returns to New York for the First Time Since Inauguration - TIME

After years of insisting the Affordable Care Act was "rammed through" without Americans knowing what it would cost, House Republicans passed their own health-care plan on May 4, without an estimate of its impact from the Congressional Budget Office. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

It was one thing for Donald Trump to pledge on the campaign trail that his plan forhealth care would assure that every American had coverage. He did so repeatedly, including during a town hall event in February 2016 at which he saidhis promise to take care of everyone might sound as if hewas talking abouta single-payer system, but he wasnt. Thats not single-payer, he said. Thats not anything. Thats just human decency.

It was another thing, though, for Trump to make similar claims after the election. Before the election, it was anything goes in a way that most politicians would avoid. Afterward, one might expect Trump to zeroin on his preferences a bit more narrowly, to scrape away the rhetoric and describe, instead, what it was that he wanted to see.

Were going to have insurance for everybody, Trump told The Washington Posts Robert Costa and Amy Goldstein during an interview less than a week before his inauguration. AlthoughTrump was characteristically confident and equally characteristically light on specifics, he did outline several things that he anticipated the Republican replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act might include.

The plan would have lower numbers, much lower deductibles. The philosophy in some circles that if you cant pay for it, you dont get it? Trump insisted that thats not going to happen with us implying that there would be universal coverage regardless of income. Whats more, people could expect to have great health care that would be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.

Trump told Costa and Goldstein that people wouldnt keep their existing plans but would have some sort of insurance plan. [T]heyll be beautifully covered, he said. I dont want single-payer. What I do want is to be able to take care of people.

That is not the proposal that passed the House on Thursday.

The American Health Care Act, passed on the strength of 217 Republican votes, is another beast entirely. The bill would overhaul the Affordable Care Act, cutting Medicaid spending and changing the incentive structure to reduce government subsidies and eliminate the individual mandate.

How does it stack up to Trumps January pledge?

Trump promised insurance for everybody. The AHCA would probably result in 24 million more uninsured people by 2026, according to the Congressional Budget Offices analysis of the original GOP bill.

Trump promised lower numbers and lower deductibles. The AHCA would probably have higher deductibles. The CBO anticipates that theywill be higher under the AHCA than they would have been if the ACAwere kept, thanks to a change in the actuarial values used in determining plan costs.

Trump promised much less expensive coverage. The AHCA would probably mean that customers would eventually see lower premiums after premiums increased, pricing more-expensive patients out of the market.

Trump promised that people who cant pay for coverage would still receive coverage. The AHCA would probably reduce the number of lower-income people with coverage. This is in part because they will receive less government support to pay premiums. Its also in part because the Republican bill cuts funding to Medicaid, meaning that millions fewer people would be covered under the program.

Trump promised that policies would be much better and that people could expect to have great health care. The AHCA would probably reduce the quality of insurance plans, thanks to late amendments that would allow states to get waivers so that insurers could separate coverage items out of the default package. The cost of plans would go down but people who find themselves needing coverage for something that had been removed would end up paying much more.

This is only the set of promises Trump made to The Post in January. He made other commitments even after inauguration that havent been met. He pledged repeatedly to protect funding for Medicaid, which is threatened under the AHCA. Just last week, he made another explicit promise.

Trump promised that the plan would take care of preexisting conditions. The AHCA would probably increase costs for a substantial number of people who have preexisting conditions, as our fact-checkers noted Thursday.

Trumps promise to cover everyone more broadly and for less money was always an impossibility, akin to saying that you were going to have your cake, eat your cake and give everyone in America the same cake, which would feed them forever. But based on the comments he made at the unusual Rose Garden ceremony to celebrate the passage of the House bill, its still not clear that he admits that what was passed diverges from what he promised.

As far Im concerned, your premiums, theyre going to start to come down, he said to applause. He later added, Yes, deductibles will be coming down. Again, this is not what outside analysis completed in March suggests will happen. Granted, the CBO hasnt conducted a review of the amended AHCA, since the Republican majority pressed forward on a vote before it was complete. Its unlikely, though, that the changes made in the past seven days would achieve the goals Trump promised again today.

He said something else, though, that may explain his overall strategy.

Make no mistake, the president said at one point, this is a repeal and a replace of Obamacare, make no mistake about it. Make no mistake. The bill would significantly alter it, but it isnt a repeal-and-replace of the Affordable Care Act. Of all of Trumps pledges on health care, though, that was his most consistent. Repeal and replace summarized the true extent of his desired outcome so fully that it was the only health-care point articulated on Stephen K. Bannonsinfamous whiteboard. No details about the repeal. None about the replace. Just Repeal. Replace.

All Trumpneeds to do now is to convince America that this is what the AHCA does. Or at least, convince himself.

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This is not the health-care bill that Trump promised - Washington Post