Trump now supposedly wants to woo Democrats, but they're not going for it

Here’s a giant “nope” of a story—eager for a win and put off by the experience of trying to get votes out of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, the Trump regime is supposedly now looking for Democratic (and moderate Republican) votes on tax reform.

Trump has tasked Mnuchin, one of the administration's most liberal members, with making many of the pitches on the issue, and has told Mnuchin and others he wants moderate Republicans and Democrats on board, several people familiar with the conversations say. Administration officials say Trump — who is transactional and strongly wants to get to yes — didn't appreciate the dynamics of the House Freedom Caucus on health care and is eager to build a bipartisan coalition for tax reform. And Marc Short, the president's legislative affairs director, has begun inviting Democrats to the White House.

Several administration officials also explained in interviews that they were disappointed with the legislative efforts on health care — and want to change their tack from negotiating heavily with conservatives and leaving the bill-writing to Speaker Paul Ryan. “We learned a lot," one senior administration official said, comparing it to Trump’s loss in the Iowa presidential primary.

They learned a lot … but apparently not that they’re still going to need Paul Ryan—who knows he owes his job to the far right taking down his predecessor—to get the House to vote on any bill. Or that just deigning to pitch Democrats on an idea is not going to work in most cases if the substance isn’t there. Also, we’re talking about Donald Trump here. The fact that he has told some people he wants to change tactics does not mean that’s what he’s telling everyone, or that he’ll follow through.

Conservative-leaning Democrats and Democrats from House districts Trump won do not seem interested. Rep. Stephen Lynch turned down a White House meeting earlier in the week, and he's not alone in taking a “no thanks” attitude to Democrats suddenly being Trump’s flavor of the week:

“I mean will they attract one or two Democrats on whatever piece of garbage they want to offer? Maybe,” said Rep. Jim Himes, chairman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition.

But early talk from the White House about corralling a few Democratic votes has to stop, the Connecticut Democrat added. “If they really want to get something done…they better leave the ‘picking off’ language behind and start talking about what we would need.”