The survival of Obamacare rather than a loss for Trump may be the best thing that has happened to him so far. The pundits (the same ones that have been wrong about Trump before) are spinning this as a political failure, the inability of the “master of the the art of the deal” to be able to get his own party in line,  or a civil war within the Republican party. If we look at this from the perspective of a Trump supporter it changes the narrative that most liberals and progressives have of his presidency. For Trump supporters Trump has been a Teflon president for whom charges of ineptitude, Russian illegal activities, enriching himself at the public’s expense, “insane” behavior, unconstitutional actions, and out and out lying, have bounced off and not put a dent in their support of him. Recent polls show that a majority of his supporters believe his lies. For example one poll shows that 59% believe his claim that Obama wiretapped him during the campaign. His supporters can argue that he has tried to keep his campaign promises but outside forces have prevented him from doing so. Courts concerned with the niceties and complexities of the Constitution have prevented him from keeping them safe from Muslim immigrants. He has claimed to keep jobs from fleeing abroad even taking credit for deals that had been decided before he took office. He says that the Keystone and Dakota pipelines he approved will create jobs. How many jobs has been exaggerated and the number of jobs going abroad has hardly slowed, but the headlines for the few that he claims to have saved are what matters to his supporters. His proposed budget tries to cut what he calls the “fat” in the federal budget by eliminating those items that benefit the elite e.g. the National Endowment for the Arts, the poor, other ethnic groups, LGBT groups, and women who want to have abortions (or in most cases health care.) At the same time his budget plans to increase spending by the military and for those keeping us safe from illegal immigrants.

The one campaign promise that might have rattled the cage of his supporters was dismantling Obamacare. This would have affected his base by taking away some of the benefits that actually had an impact on the lives of many of them. His attempt to change it and its failure due to Republican Party politics was actually the best of both worlds. The president was seen as honestly trying to keep his campaign promises, but being prevented by others. At the same time none of his supporters lost actual benefits. It is a double win for him. Of course he is not out of the woods yet. The investigation into Russian collusion with his campaign may yet turn up a smoking gun. At this stage however to his supporters it is all innuendo and “fake news” of interest only to the liberals and their media. Those outside the Beltway do not pay close attention to what the media says about politics.  They are more concerned with actions rather than the process itself. Budget cuts may eventually affect his supporters but as long as the actualities of the actions do not affect them personally they do not pay attention to the stories being told.

The gloating and celebration of liberals and progressive ignore the long road ahead and the many battles to come. Future success will depend on the mobilization of our forces not the erosion of support for Trump. Even when he loses a battle it just strengthens his support.