The president has invited all 52 GOP senators to the White House for lunch on Wednesday. | Evan Vucci/AP Trump to pitch GOP senators one last time to repeal Obamacare

President Donald Trump is trying to save the GOP's near-dead effort to repeal Obamacare.

The president has invited all 52 GOP senators to the White House for lunch on Wednesday to see if he can revive the GOP's moribund plans to repeal and replace the 2010 health law.


This week GOP senators rejected both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's latest draft bill to replace much of Obamacare as well as an effort to repeal it with no replacement. McConnell still plans to hold a procedural vote on repealing the health care law that's likely to fail.

Several Republican senators urged McConnell to schedule the vote for this week.

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But White House officials personally asked for more time to try to reach a deal, according to sources familiar with the matter, and McConnell scheduled the vote for next week.

Though the mood was sour in the GOP caucus on Tuesday and some Republicans are shifting away from the partisan repeal approach, Trump is still trying for a deal. He believes he can get an agreement to move forward by twisting arms and negotiating himself, those sources said. But Senate Republicans are not optimistic.