Trump: Australian health care system better than US

Sanders, the Vermont independent who sought the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, tweeted in response Friday: “Yes, Mr. Trump, the Australian health care system is a lot better than ours and infinitely better than the disastrous bill you supported.”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders cautioned Friday against reading too much into the president’s comment. She said he was complimenting a foreign leader on the “operations of their health care system” and that he “didn’t mean anything more than that.”

Trump seemed to contradict his spokeswoman a short time later, tweeting “Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do – everybody does. ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great.”

Australia has a government-funded system that provides free or subsidized care for all Australian citizens and permanent residents, which is partially funded by income taxes.

In an earlier tweet Friday, Trump said his “Big win in the House” was “very exciting!”

“But when everything comes together with the inclusion of Phase 2, we will have truly great healthcare!,” Trump added in the tweet sent from his home on his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Trump was likely referring to regulatory and other changes the administration can make to the Obama-era law.

Trump was spending an extended weekend at his central New Jersey home, about 40 miles west of New York.

“Rather than causing a big disruption in N.Y.C., I will be working out of my home in Bedminster, N.J. this weekend. Also saves country money!” he tweeted.

The White House said he was holding meetings and making calls, but didn’t say with whom. Trump also signed a $1 trillion bill funding the government through September.

Trump spent just a few hours in his New York City hometown Thursday, but avoided his Trump Tower home, where security has been tightened and the costs for it have mounted since he became president. He had not been back to the city since leaving for his Jan. 20 inauguration.

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Associated Press writer Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Australia, contributed to this report.

Darlene Superville, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Trump: Australian health care system better than US

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