President Trump stepped up his threats to cut a deal with Democrats over healthcare if conservatives in the House won't back his proposals.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump said that despite the recent collapse of the Republican healthcare bill, negotiations were still taking place among GOP leaders aimed at coming up with a new plan.
The stumbling block, he suggested, was the House Freedom Caucus, the conservative group that Trump has blamed for the failure of his bill in March.
He said he hoped Republicans would unite behind a new plan.
But "if we don't get what we want, we will make a deal with the Democrats," he said. If that happens, "we will have in my opinion not as good a form of healthcare, but we are going to have a very good form of healthcare, and it will be a bipartisan form of healthcare."
Last week, Trump threatened to back primary challengers to some Freedom Caucus members in 2018 if they don't support his program.
On Saturday, Dan Scavino, the White House social media director, sent out a tweet calling for the defeat of Rep. Justin Amash, a Freedom Caucus member from Michigan.
Some prominent government ethics experts said Scavino's tweet may have violated the Hatch Act, the law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity while at work. White House officials said the tweet was proper because it came from Scavino's personal account.
