Trump bobbles attack on Obamacare Republicans were handed a gift when the Obama administration announced two weeks before Election Day that Obamacare premiums are set to soar next year.

DORAL, Fla. — Standing beside his shimmering green golf course, Donald Trump had the political equivalent of a tap-in putt — news that Obamacare premiums are set to shoot up next year.

He muffed it.


At a campaign event at his Miami-area golf resort Tuesday morning, Trump said President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act legislation is “just blowing up,” blaming the controversial law for his employees’ struggles with health care, but once again he made a mess of his attack.

Speaking with Trump National Doral Miami resort employees behind him, the GOP nominee pledged to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, which he said has raised health care costs for those who buy insurance through exchanges created by the legislation.

“And I can say all of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare. You folks, this is another group. Is that a correct statement?” he said, gesturing to the crowd. “You look at what they’re going through with their health care is horrible because of Obamacare. So we’ll repeal it and replace it. But this is about jobs. And we have thousands of employees in Florida.”

Moments later, Trump appeared to contradict himself, stating that his employees don’t have to deal with Obamacare exchanges because his corporation provides them with health care coverage. “These are just amazing people,” Trump said. “This is what jobs do. Jobs just make lives and they make people and they make families and they’re not worried about their health care because we take great care of people.”

The announcement on Monday from the White House, that premiums for benchmark Obamacare plans are scheduled to soar 25 percent next year, would in any other election year be devastating news for the Democratic presidential candidate, especially so close to Election Day.

But Trump’s campaign has been dragged into the gutter in recent weeks, struggling under the weight of multiple allegations of sexual assault against the GOP nominee and a 2005 recording in which he used vulgar language to describe sexually predatory behavior. After weeks playing defense, Trump seemed to fumble his chance to finally go back on the offensive.

In a telephone interview with Fox News shortly after his Doral event Tuesday morning, Trump seemed to misunderstand how the Affordable Care Act works, telling his interviewers that “I don’t much use Obamacare, I must be honest with you, because it is so bad for the people and they can’t afford it.”

But employer-provided health care is wholly separate from Obamacare insurance, which is designed to offer health plans to Americans who do not get insurance from their job. Trump said of Obamacare, “We don’t use it. So you know, when they interviewed those people, they’re happy with their health coverage.”

At his own campaign stop Tuesday in Ohio, Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence offered a more successful critique of Obamacare, jabbing the president for celebrating the third anniversary of its launch earlier this month.

“He actually, get this, I’m not making this up. President Obama last week compared Obamacare to the Samsung Galaxy 7 phones that have spontaneously burst into flames. Did you hear about that?” Pence said. “He actually — I got a quote — he actually said, ‘When one of these companies comes out with a new smartphone and it has a few bugs, what do they do? They fix it, they upgrade it. Unless it catches fire, then they pull it off the market.’ Well, what a coincidence Mr. President, because that’s exactly what we’re gonna do with Obamacare. We’re gonna pull it off the market. We’re gonna repeal it lock, stock and barrel.”

Trump’s Tuesday morning comments at Trump National Doral Miami preceded about 10 minutes of informal testimonials from employees at the golf resort, which the GOP nominee’s corporation purchased in 2012. All said they were supporting “Mr. Trump,” who repeatedly reminded reporters that the event was impromptu and not at all planned, but he did joke about pressuring them to say nice things about him.

“This guy better say ‘good,’” Trump said as he called a Hispanic man to the microphone. “Or else I’ll say, ‘You’re fired.’”

As he walked away from the event, which was held on a patio outside the resort’s grand ballroom and on the edge of the manicured golf course, Trump responded to a shouted question about whether his employees are on Obamacare plans by saying, “Some of them, but most of them, no.”

Following just behind Trump, David Feder, managing director of Trump National Doral Miami , further clarified to reporters that “very few” employees would have reason to buy Obamacare policies because “95 percent” are provided health care, which is a large portion of the resort’s operating costs.

Asked whether Trump was wrong to say that his employees were actually struggling with the president’s landmark health care law, Feder said, “I wouldn’t say he’s incorrect, I would tell you that the only employees that I know — again I don’t have the books in front of me — that may purchase Obamacare are typically part-timers.”

While the 25 percent Obamacare premium increases represent a jump three times larger than this year’s increases, there has not been a corresponding uptick in premiums for employer-based health insurance plans. Premiums for such plans, the type Trump’s employees would receive through their jobs, increased just 3 percent this year, continuing a stretch of modest premium growth for employer-based coverage.

Trump’s Affordable Care Act attacks echoed remarks he delivered Monday night at a rally in Tampa, Florida, in which he said “it’s over for Obamacare.”

“In some areas, they’re paying 60, 70 and 80 percent more than they were paying last year,” he told rally attendees. “And Hillary Clinton wants to double down and make it more expensive, and it’s not going to work. I called it when it first came out. It’s only getting worse, and not only for you, for the country. Because our country can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. We’re going to have great health care at a fraction of the cost, and you watch. It’ll happen.”

Despite the negative news for Obamacare, Bill Clinton mostly stuck by the legislation on Tuesday during a campaign stop on his wife’s behalf in North Carolina. The former president, who recently called Obamacare a “crazy system,” admitted that the legislation is not without flaws but said his wife’s approach of addressing them without repealing the act altogether is preferable to Trump’s repeal-and-replace proposal. He called Trump’s plan “a terrible idea” because it would once again allow insurers to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions and undo the law’s provision allowing offspring t0 remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26. Repealing the law, Clinton added, would strip health insurance from “more than 20 million people.”

“So what would a country that was interested in being stronger together do? You’d keep what’s good about the law and attack the problems. She’s the only person you can vote for that wants to do that,” Bill Clinton said. “He just says ‘I want to repeal this law and trust me on the rest.’”

