Seth Meyers: Why we now know Trump's dealmaking skills are a 'complete sham'

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March 28, 2017 3:42 PM

Seth Meyers discusses how President Donald Trump's much-touted negotiation skills have come under scrutiny after the death of his healthcare bill.

Seth Meyers took shots at Donald Trump's reputation as "the closer."

Seth Meyers doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the failure of President Donald Trump's healthcare plan and what it says about the real-estate mogul's supposed dealmaking skills.

To start off Monday's edition of the "Late Night" segment "A Closer Look," Meyers ran a series of clips in which Trump touted his superior dealmaking talent and how it would help him succeed as president.

"Healthcare was the first test of Trump's supposed dealmaking skills, and it went up in flames," the host said.

Since it was introduced earlier this month, the American Health Care Act, also known as "Trumpcare" or "Ryancare" (after its author, House Speaker Paul Ryan), saw much opposition from both Republicans and Democrats. When it became clear that GOP leadership had been unable to secure enough votes to pass the bill, meant to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump ordered Ryan to pull it from the House, effectively killing it.

Trump, the author of "The Art of the Deal," was reportedly referred to as "the closer" by Ryan staffers promoting Trump's negotiation ability regarding the AHCA, but that turned out to be insufficient to save the ailing legislation.

The failure also reflected badly on Republicans more broadly. Meyers pointed to Florida Rep. Tom Rooney, who told The Atlantic he had a tough time naming "one thing our party has done that's been something positive, that's been something other than stopping something else from happening" in the eight years he has held office.

"That's like a doctor giving a speech at his retirement party and saying, 'Now that I think of it, every patient I treated died,'" Meyers said.

The question of whether Trump can unite the party and get things done remains. Meyers isn't optimistic, and he isn't impressed by the president's failure to acknowledge his defeat after the implosion of the healthcare bill.

"So now that the dealmaking skills Trump spent the entire campaign bragging about have turned out to be a complete sham," Meyers said, "is the president at least willing to admit that he failed to deliver on a key campaign promise? Of course not."

Watch Seth Meyers in the latest edition of "A Closer Look":

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