Trump Calls His Administration’s Infrastructure Plan ‘Stupid’ - Reports

During a meeting with Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, the US President underscored that he had never supported the proposal calling for public-private partnerships because "you get sued," a senior Democratic source who attended the private meeting in the White House’s Cabinet Room told the Hill.

"That was a Gary [Cohn] bill. That bill was so stupid," Trump told the Democratic leaders, according to the source.

Another person who was at Tuesday’s White House meeting confirmed Trump’s remarks criticizing his administration's plan. The proposal called for $200 billion in federal spending that would be used to leverage at least an additional $800 billion in private investment over the next decade.

Cohn, Trump's first director of the National Economic Council, resigned from his White House post in April 2018, two months after the White House infrastructure plan was released.

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"[Trump] said definitively he doesn't like private-public partnerships, and he did not at all support the plan that was put forward last year," recalled House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio, who was among the group of Hill Democrats who met with Trump. He noted that the plan was a product of “a think tank guy, DJ Gribbin.” Gribbin, an infrastructure policy adviser, also left the White House last year.

Tuesday's meeting marked a rare breakthrough for Trump and Democratic leaders, who agreed to come up with a $2 trillion infrastructure package. However, the two sides failed to agree on how to pay for the package and will meet again in three weeks to discuss the details, Pelosi and Schumer announced.