I'm still keeping my eye on the possibility, however remote, that in order to buttress his 'outsider', 'anti-establishment' credentials, Trump turns on this "mean" bill and endorses something akin to a conservative interpretation of the public option.
All he'd need to do, in the near future, is do an about face on the legislation in defiance of the Congressional leadership. Richard Spencer et al. have been calling for this for some time, and of every possible Republican leader Trump is about the only one who could plausibly manage it.
I agree that Trump is the only Republican that would be willing to try something like that, but he will need to get some Democratic votes in order to pass a decent public option, and Democrats are united against anything Trump wants to do unless it is starting a war.
I think it's possible our 'outsider' President will endorse several Joe Manchin/Jim Justice type Democrats in the 2018 primaries, which is where he actually wants to govern from anyway.
Is it good politics in the long term, or will it produce good policy? No. But this Administration is a purely strategic creation, one which exists in lieu of a real realignment. Such artless political filching could stave off genuine change for decades.