Two days in and Trump's already overwhelmed

The bitter infighting that plagued Donald Trump’s campaign during the Republican presidential primary is starting to spill over into his team’s efforts to establish an administration and political operation, according to more than half a dozen sources familiar with the planning efforts.

The tensions played a role in a Friday shakeup in which the president-elect replaced his transition team chief Chris Christie with his running mate Mike Pence. Sources familiar with the move say it was precipitated partly by clashes between Christie’s allies and rival factions on the transition team, as well as Trump’s influential son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Those rifts and others are complicating what was an already a herculean task for Trump’s team: building a massive new government for a man who has never held public office.

“It's the same situation as in the primary – everyone has the knives out for each other,” said a Republican operative who worked with the campaign and is now advising people on the transition team.

A spokesman for Trump did not respond on Friday evening to questions about the tensions, or about Kushner's role in the leadership change at the transition team.

Donald Trump elevated Vice President-elect Mike Pence to chairman of his White House transition team — replacing embattled New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — and reportedly suggested he’s willing to keep pieces of Obamacare intact even though he fiercely campaigned on repealing and replacing the law.

Although the president-elect pledged to work “quickly” to “amend or repeal and replace” Obamacare, he told The Wall Street Journal his recent sit-down at the White House with President Obama convinced him to salvage parts of the law people like — namely the prohibition against insurers denying coverage and a provision that lets parents keep their kids on their health care plan until they turn 26.

“I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that,” Trump told the Journal.

“Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced.”

In a separate interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Trump said the provision “happens to be one of the strongest assets.”

Republicans, who for six years have promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, will finally get their chance to do it. But even with control of the White House and Congress, it’s unclear whether the GOP can pull it off.

While rolling back Obamacare, as President-elect Donald Trump has promised to do in his first days in office, could be accomplished relatively easily, enacting the complex legislation necessary to replace the law while protecting millions of Americans who depend on it for coverage may prove daunting.

It also would represent an unparalleled effort by a new president to dismantle a major government program and replace it with something new.

“It’s a very big challenge,” said James C. Capretta, a leading conservative health policy expert and former Bush administration official now at the American Enterprise Institute.

“There will be a lot of pressure to do something and to do it relatively quickly … but the big complication with repeal and replace has always been, how do they handle the replace part?”

Indeed, congressional Republicans have never advanced replacement bills through an arduous committee process, submitted the legislation to rigorous budgetary analysis or contended with the potential impact on constituents who could see their out-of-pocket medical costs soar.

GOP lawmakers have held more than 50 repeal votes over the past six years. While most of those were symbolic, the next one could strip insurance coverage from more than 20 million Americans, according to independent estimates.

Such a step to roll back government benefits — unprecedented in modern U.S. history — likely would roil state healthcare markets across the country and fuel an enormous political backlash as Trump was settling in for his first term. Many healthcare industry stocks fell dramatically Wednesday amid investor worries about a potential new repeal push.

“You can’t just pull the plug on 20 million people,” warned Gail Wilensky, who headed the Medicare and Medicaid programs under President George H.W. Bush and helped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) develop a healthcare plan during his 2008 presidential campaign.

The Devil, You Know wrote:has the current president spoken out about the democrat riots overwhelming the US at the moment, or is he tacitly stoking them as hilliary clinton is?