Michigan's incoming senator wants to slap Trump's name on government-run healthcare — because the old label wasn't selling.
Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed is betting that rebranding "Medicare for All" as "Trumpcare" will do what progressive arguments alone couldn't: convince Americans to hand their medical decisions to Washington. Same cradle-to-grave government system. Different lettering on the package.
El-Sayed made the pitch on CNN's "The Source" with Kaitlan Collins Tuesday. "Donald, if you're watching, we can put your name on it," the Democrat said. "I know you like to put your name on stuff. You can finally meet the unmet promise in America to guarantee everybody health care. So it's on the table if you want to do it."
Collins asked whether he was serious about offering Trump the naming rights to the signature progressive policy. "I'm absolutely serious," El-Sayed replied. "I don't care what it's called. I want people to have health care in this country."
He repeated the offer to Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan last week, saying he'd call it "Trumpcare for All." "I think that would be a win," El-Sayed said. "So if he wants to call it Trumpcare, I'm game."
What El-Sayed is actually selling: a system that guarantees coverage "from cradle to grave — without copays, premiums, or deductibles," as the New York Post reported. Translation: the federal government runs the show, taxpayers foot the bill, and private insurance gets crowded out. The label changes. The control stays the same.
El-Sayed, a former public health official, made Medicare for All the centerpiece of his campaign and pitched it as the answer to America's medical debt crisis. He told CNN that Democrats' midterm victories gave them a mandate. "I bet if the president came out and said, 'You know, I'm gonna sign this if you call it Trumpcare for All,' I think we might be able to do it," he said.
Trump has long opposed the Affordable Care Act and nearly repealed it in 2017, falling one vote short when the late Sen. John McCain joined two Republicans in voting against a "skinny repeal." Trump has floated replacing Obamacare but hasn't detailed a plan — a gap El-Sayed clearly sees as an opening.
The rebrand is the whole play. Medicare for All polls well in the abstract but bleeds support when voters hear the details — the tax hikes, the elimination of private insurance, the wait times that follow every government system promising everything for "free." El-Sayed's career arc is its own tell: from public health official to Senate candidate pushing to expand the very bureaucracy he came from.
The question isn't what you call it. The question is whether Americans will buy government-run medicine just because someone swapped the nameplate.
