Replies

"Trump would not fight so hard for something he hadn’t seen and approved.
I simply will not believe that. "

There, you have it.
You've identified your own problem, ... not facing reality!

How many times did Trump meet with the Freedom Caucus ?
What did the Freedom Caucus say ?
Read parts of the article again:

RUSH: ... Sad to say this was in the cards. I think the Freedom Caucus is getting a very bad rap as being the reason — that bill, folks, there were two ways to look at it. The bill by itself maintained Obamacare aspects. So why vote for it? It maintained Obamacare aspects. In some cases premiums were going to increase. Why do this? Why put your name to that? Why would any Republican do it? Unless the objective was just get a win, just say within 60 days we tackled the biggest legislative issue to come down the pike, and we got it done. See? We repealed and reformed, except there wasn’t gonna be any of that. They needed phase 2 and phase 3. Freedom Caucus said there’s nothing here. Freedom Caucus said, “You know what? The people urging us to vote for this are not even telling us what’s in it. They’re not selling it to us. They’re telling us to vote for it, to stick with party unity, to make sure that it looks like the party’s united, but nobody’s telling us the decent things. So we went in, we got some concessions, we got some things that we wanted in it, but not enough.” I think a real analysis of this would show that the greater number of defections was actually going to be among the so-called moderates in the House. But the conservatives are always gonna get the blame because the Washington establishment, both parties, despises them. ... RUSH: ... For all of you who think that Paul Ryan is the problem in the House, Trump here is siding with him.Number one. That’s what this tweet means. So the health care bill going down the tubes, Trump is not blaming Ryan for it. He’s clearly blaming the Freedom Caucus. ... if the Freedom Caucus doesn’t get on board, then Trump is gonna try to take ’em out in 2018. ... But in the final analysis, it means that Trump is siding with Ryan here, not with Ryan in any way other than the health care bill being defeated. Trump is not holding Ryan in any way, shape, manner, or form responsible. I know many of you do, but this means that Trump isn’t. You also have to keep in mind that Trump is not ideological. I have made this point over and over. He knows what conservative policies are, he knows what liberalism is, but he doesn’t see people that way. It’s a big difference. You look at Chuck Schumer’s opposition to Gorsuch. Trump doesn’t chalk it up to the fact that Schumer is a liberal. He chalks it up to the fact that Schumer is, you know, a de facto ill body part or he’s a weird guy, just a mean guy or wrong or whatever. But Trump is typical of many Americans. They don’t think ideologically, they don’t analyze ideologically, they don’t even know ideology. These people, you start talking about liberalism or conservatism, you lose them. About as far as they go is Republican versus Democrat, but conservative/liberal? Act! Sadly, that is the case. I wish it were otherwise. So the Freedom Caucus… I think Trump’s a media creature. The Freedom Caucus has been blamed; I don’t know how you escape that. Trump sees these guys as people who opposed him. He’s a Republican president. He’s largely responsible, in his mind, for their having acquired power, and they’re opposing him. N-n-n-n-nooo. He doesn’t see ’em as a bunch of conservatives who have to be swayed. Now, he’s got people in his regime that no doubt do. Don’t misunderstand. I’m talking about Trump himself. ... I’m just telling you, everybody has their own makeup — their own personality and political makeup — and Trump has not been someone who decides on policy based on the ideological aspect or component of it. I’ll give you an example of the branding on this. One of the places that I play golf, when we all gather there — and this group I know is made up of people who always vote Republican. Many of them do not like conservatives because their wives have nagged ’em on abortion. Look, it is what it is. They have a misunderstanding of it, even though they are. Even though they live their lives this way, even though when you listen to them talk, you would swear they are conservative. You call ’em that and they say, “No, no, no, no.” All right. You take 10 of us sitting around the table having breakfast before we go out to the range, and a dyed-in-the-wool movement conservative will sit down at the table and start talking about whatever the latest news is in dyed-in-the-wool conservative terms. Half the group of 10 will get up and leave. They don’t want to hear it. They think the guy’s a kook — think the guy’s a literal kook — and all he’s doing is talking conservatism, traditional American values. They think he’s a kook. These are the people that I’m talking about. They don’t see things ideologically. In fact, these people, when you do get to ideology, they kind of get nervous and back off. ... Now, as I say, he may be growing, learning more and becoming more understanding of things ideological. Don’t know. But it’s important to know that he isn’t. So his opposition to the Freedom Caucus is not strictly because they’re conservative. It’s mostly because he thinks that they voted against him. And if you’re not on his team, you know, he’s not gonna woo you. You either join him or you’re out in the cold.

In my opinion, Trump did not know or, for that matter, really care about all the details in that Bill.
All Trump cared about was, that his name was going to be attached to that Bill, and anything with his name on it ... MUST ... ABSOLUTELY MUST ... be a WINNER !