Donovan Slack

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Trump is getting a crash course in the art of the deal. In politics.

The New York real estate magnate has been working the phones, convening meetings with key lawmakers and even threatening some.

"He was on the phone last night well into the 11 o'clock hour," press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday.

But his first foray in legislative horse-trading missed the mark, and House Republican leaders delayed a planned vote on legislation to largely repeal and replace Obamacare on the seventh anniversary of its signing. They did not announce when it would be held.

Spicer said the meetings and phone calls with Trump, Vice President Pence and other administration officials would continue.

"I anticipate that we will get there," he said. "We continue to make progress."

One of the key sticking points, he said, was on provisions some Republicans want added to the American Health Care Act before they will support it.

As it stands, the bill replaces large swaths of the Affordable Care Act, including requirements that individuals maintain insurance at all times and that larger companies provide it to employees.

But it keeps intact provisions that allow children to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26 and that prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. It also doesn't repeal requirements that insurance cover certain preventive health benefits.

Some conservative Republicans worry those mandates have driven up premiums and want them eliminated. That includes members of the influential Freedom Caucus who met with Trump at the White House on Thursday.

"We have not gotten enough of our members to get to' yes' at this point," said Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who chairs the caucus, which has roughly three dozen members.

Facing unanimous opposition from Democrats, Trump can only afford to lose 22 Republicans if he wants to notch a win in the House. But if he gives in to Freedom Caucus demands, that could mean losing the support of moderate Republicans, several of whom have already suggested they are voting no.

Meadows said that as of Thursday evening, between 30 and 40 Republicans opposed the current version of the legislation.

Read more:

Why Republicans can't put everything they want in their health care bill

Ryan postpones House vote on Obamacare repeal as talks continue

The first 100 days of the Trump presidency

Swaying enough of them into the yes column is the first major legislative test for Trump, who campaigned on his ability to get deals done in Washington much the way he negotiated real estate deals in the private sector.

"It's going to be a very close vote," he said at an event with truckers at the White House designed to highlight hardships they have faced under Obamacare.

"By the way, it's close not because Obamacare's good — it's close for politics. They know it's no good. Everybody knows it's no good. Only, politics. We have a great bill and I think we have a very good chance. But it's only politics."

As he continued to work the inside game, calling and meeting with lawmakers, the president also began an ardent effort at the outside game, urging his followers on Twitter to back the Republican replacement bill and call their representatives in Congress to express their support.

“You were given many, many false stories; The fact is you were given many lies,” Trump said in a video he tweeted, noting that former president Barack Obama told people they could keep their doctor and their insurance plan under the law.

“Go with our plan,” Trump urged. “It’s going to be terrific, you’re going to be very, very happy.”

Obama, meanwhile, did a little outside gaming of his own Thursday. He issued a statement hailing the benefits of his signature law and said that with its passage, “We finally declared that in America, health care is not a privilege for a few, but a right for everybody.”

He batted down Republican talking points that it is a “job-killer” and in a “death spiral,” noting that a vast majority of Obamacare enrollees have not seen their premiums increase and “America’s businesses went on a record-breaking streak of job growth in the seven years since I signed it.”

Other Democrats also needled Trump, even as the negotiator-in-chief was fighting for every last vote.

“My GOP friends say @realDonaldTrump doesn't have the votes to pass #GOPrepeal bill today,” Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., wrote on Twitter. “Has he even read The Art of the Deal?”