ACHE 2017: Ann Compton says Trump's healthcare fight will make for ‘one hell of a movie'

CHICAGO—Thirty years ago, when now-President Donald Trump described his leadership style, he said he prefers "to come to work every day and just see what happens,” Ann Compton, the former White House correspondent for ABC News, told an audience of about 4,000 at the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) 2017 Congress this morning.

“Is this how you run your shop?” she asked the audience of healthcare leaders.

Last week, the country saw the result of Trump’s freewheeling style when faced with an issue as complex as healthcare reform, said Compton, who spent more than 40 years covering seven presidents in the White House. On Friday, with too few Republicans signaling that they would support the American Health Care Act (AHCA) if it came up for a vote on the House floor, Republican leaders opted instead to table the bill, a stinging defeat for Trump’s legislative agenda. 

RELATED: Facing defeat, GOP pulls healthcare bill

Compton described Trump working the phones relentlessly to secure support for the bill, giving one Congressman "the Mar-A-Lago treatment" and threatening another that he would come after him.

Yet in the aftermath of the decision to table the bill, Trump called a Washington Post reporter on his cellphone, and then called a New York Times reporter to relay the news. Compton said it was surprising that Trump called two news organizations that he vilified and often excluded from news events to relay the news.

“I have to tell you folks, this is going to make one hell of a movie,” Compton told the audience. What’s next? The fight to repeal the Affordable Care Act is not over, but right now she described it as in the rear view mirror.

The inability to pass the AHCA, however, does not strengthen Trump’s hand as he tackles other issues, including tax reform, she said. As for healthcare, she predicted healthcare leaders will use their voice and their concrete ideas to move the issue forward.

RELATED: What now? Health insurers still face uncertainty after AHCA's demise

In all her years covering the White House, Compton said U.S. presidents are marked and defined by what they do in moments of crisis. She entertained the audience with stories from her reporter’s life: Being in the Florida classroom when President George W. Bush learned of the 9-11 attacks, gushing over the actor Harrison Ford, getting a letter of apology from Bush after he snapped at her when she asked a question—a copy of which she waved in her hand.

She also described how the media has changed: fake news, cable news with its barrage of talking heads, conservative talk radio. In the face of that, the country needs a respected, responsible press corps on democracy’s doorstep to protect the interests of the people, Compton said.