Former President Trump attempted to explain comments he made earlier this week about finding ways to 'reduce' entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare in a new interview.
“I will never do anything that will put Social Security or Medicare in danger,” Trump told Breitbart News on Wednesday. “We’ll have to make changes elsewhere. But we won’t do anything to harm them.”
“There are many actions we can take,” Trump added. “There is a lot of reduction and wasteful spending in many other areas, but I will never do anything to harm Social Security.”
Trump’s remarks followed criticism from President Biden regarding an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday where he was asked about addressing long-term financial stability issues with entitlement programs.
“First of all, there are numerous options in terms of entitlements, in terms of reducing,” Trump said. “And also, the misuse and poor management of entitlements — significant mismanagement of entitlements — there are numerous things and various actions that can be taken.”
Biden quickly jumped on those comments, pledging to oppose any efforts to reduce Social Security or Medicare. His campaign promptly highlighted Trump’s comments into an ad to warn voters in battleground states that the former president and expected GOP nominee would endanger entitlement programs.
Trump has been firm that Republicans should not make changes to Social Security or Medicare, differing from GOP beliefs and some primary opponents who argued that actions, such as increasing the retirement age, were necessary to ensure the programs’ solvency in the future.
However, during his presidency, every one of Trump’s White House budget plans included reductions to Social Security and Medicare programs.
The Republicans’ budget proposal for the next fiscal year included steps focused on strengthening work requirements for Medicaid, while decreasing annual government spending and targeting economic policies enacted when Democrats last controlled both chambers of Congress.
