Can Democrats Save Trump From Himself?

After President Donald Trump's first legislative battle, a deplorably stingy attempt to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, went down without a vote in the House, I wondered: What happened to all of the "winning"?

"We are gonna win, win, win," Trump had promised at a National Rifle Association convention in Louisville last May, among other locations. "We're going to win with military, we're going to win at the borders, we're going to win with trade, we're going to win at everything. And some of you are friends and you're going to call, and you're going to say, 'Mr. President, please, we can't take it anymore, we can't win anymore like this, Mr. President, you're driving us crazy, you're winning too much, please Mr. President, not so much, and I'm going to say, I'm sorry, we're going to keep winning because we are going to make America great again."

Ah, as Mr. Trump might say, those were the days.

When House Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to withdraw the repeal-and-replace bill that he designed and Trump supported, Trump sounded more like one of the "loo-zahs" that he loves to mock.

It was quickly apparent that Trump was too ignorant of the contents of the American Health Care Act to play his usual blame game very persuasively after its defeat.

At first he tried to blame Democrats. That was hilarious. The Grand Old Party controls the White House and both houses of Congress, yet Trump still flatters the magical power of Democrats to gum up GOP plans.

"We had no votes from the Democrats," Trump said on Friday shortly after the bill was pulled. "They weren't going to give us a single vote, so it's a very difficult thing to do."

Sure, it's hard to get votes from people when you don't ask. "The president never called us once about this," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, partly because they knew Democrats were not about to support an outright repeal of President Obama's signature legislation.

But by Sunday, Trump had broadened his list of the blameworthy to the far-right House Freedom Caucus and two conservative political groups. "Democrats are smiling in D.C.," he tweeted, "that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club for Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & (Obamacare)!"

Only two days earlier, Trump praised the "very good people" in the Freedom Caucus after the bill was pulled, saying, "No, I'm not betrayed. They're friends of mine."

But on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told Fox News, "I think the president is disappointed in the number of people he thought were loyal to him that weren't."

No, most of the Freedom Caucus members, confident of their own support in their conservative districts, were willing to take their chances and defy Trump, even though it means the Obamacare against which they had campaigned for eight years still stands.

Humbled by GOP disarray, the president said he was "moving on" to other issues after Ryan's bill collapsed. But Trump was damaged. The hot air had fizzled out of his hyper-inflated reputation as a master "always winning" deal maker who can bluff his way through issues and political factions with which he is barely familiar.

But when all else fails, try a little cooperation. Amid Sunday's circular firing squad of finger-pointing and recriminations, Trump offered to work with (Gasp!) Democrats to push through his future policies. In fact, this is an opportunity for Trump to revive the hope he raised during his campaign that, since he worked across party lines before he became a candidate, maybe he'll do it as president.

But will Democrats work with him? Obviously not on a defining issue like the demolition of Obamacare. But other issues like Trump's proposed infrastructure construction projects appeal to lawmakers in both parties with the possibility of jobs, dollars and badly needed repairs to their districts.

Yet Team Trump and other Republican leaders appear to be more interested in taking on tax reform, an issue that is even more divisive inside Republican ranks than health care. Everybody has vastly different priorities as to what should be taxed or tax-freed -- and divisive passions run even higher about taxes than about health care.

With that in mind, Trump's best bet for a badly needed win to help rebuild his "winning" image may well come by working with the other party. Ironically, moderate Democratic leaders like Schumer must contend with their own radical "Resistance" on the left that would rather leave the Trump White House to sink on its own.

Watching Trump sink sounds attractive to Dems after months of putting up with his bluster. But if either party passes up obvious opportunities to work for the nation's common good, they'll sink along with him.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)