Less than a week before his 100-day anniversary since inauguration, President Trump dismissed its significance and the scrutiny that comes with it.
“It’s an artificial barrier. It’s not very meaningful,” Trump told the Associated Press in a Friday interview that was fully released on Sunday.
Trump also downplayed that his 100-day plan called a “Contract with the American Voter” that he unveiled along the campaign trail was his idea. Trump played up major legislative goals such as repealing Obamacare and other executive actions about which he has since changed his tune.
For instance, in the contract he said he would label China to be a currency manipulator, which he declined to do earlier this month.
A major legislative effort to repeal Obamacare was pulled last month because it didn’t have enough votes.
But Trump did follow through on some things such as withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal and executive orders such as a temporary federal hiring freeze.
Federal courts have rejected other orders such as his travel ban.
Trump told the AP that the contract wasn’t his idea.
“Somebody put out the concept of a 100-day plan,” he said. ” Well, I’m mostly there on most items.”
Trump also sought to downplay his call to repeal Obamacare, even though he promised he would have repealed the law by the 100-day mark and White House officials initially tried to get a vote on a new Obamacare repeal deal next week.
However, the White House backed off that assertion after GOP House leadership pushed back on it because the didn’t know if they had the votes yet for it to pass.
It was announced this weekend that Trump will rally in Pennsylvania next Saturday on his 100th day in office. He is going to the rally in lieu of attending the White House Correspondents Dinner.
