Former President Donald Trump is now insisting he will protect Social Security and Medicare, not cut them like his recent comments suggested, as entitlement reforms becomes a potent line of attack heading into the general election.
Trump has a history of seemingly contradictory action on the issue since his first White House bid, which President Biden and Democrats have seized on.
In an interview with Breitbart News on Wednesday, the ex-president vowed he would not touch Social Security and Medicare.
‘I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare,’ Trump said. ‘We’ll have to do it elsewhere. But we’re not going to do anything to hurt them.’
It comes after a CNBC interview on Monday where the former president was asked if he changed his outlook on how to ‘handle entitlements: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?’
‘So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting, and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements,’ Trump responded.
Trump vowed to never cut Social Security and Medicare in an interview with Breitbart on Wednesday after comments on Monday suggested he was open to cutting entitlements
![Trump called in to CNBC on Monday where he was asked whether he had changed his outlook on how to handle entitlements including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/14/14/82466569-13197037-image-a-10_1710427181338.jpg)
Trump called in to CNBC on Monday where he was asked whether he had changed his outlook on how to handle entitlements including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
‘There is tremendous amounts of things, and numbers of things, you can do,’ the ex-president continued.
That afternoon, Trump’s campaign clarified the ‘cutting’ comment, saying Trump would protect entitlements while getting rid of waste and fraud.
But President Biden pounced on the remarks, responding to a clip of Trump’s comment with a post on X: ‘Not on my watch.’
By Monday evening, the Biden campaign had cut a digital ad of Trump’s CNBC interview paired with Biden during his State of the Union address last Thursday where the president vowed ‘if anyone here tries to cut Social Security, Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop you.’
Biden made a similar statement while campaigning on Monday in New Hampshire.
![Biden vowed to stop anyone who would cut Social Security or Medicare during his visit to New Hampshire on Monday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/14/14/82466549-13197037-image-a-9_1710427132515.jpg)
Biden vowed to stop anyone who would cut Social Security or Medicare during his visit to New Hampshire on Monday
As he campaigns for a second term, Trump has for some time insisted he would not cut Social Security or Medicare and even attacked his GOP primary opponents on the issue.
During the debt ceiling fight last year, Trump argued in a video ‘under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.’
Back to 2015, Trump touted being the first GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
But when Trump was president, his administration’s budget proposals did include cuts to Social Security and Medicare, largely targeting disability benefits and by reducing provider payments.
During his 2020 campaign, Trump also vowed to make a temporary payroll tax holiday permanent if reelected. It raised questions over how Social Security, which is funded by payroll taxes, would be paid for going forward.
Talk of reforming Social Security and Medicare has been seen as lethal ahead of an election even as the national debt has surged past $34 trillion.
More than 150 million people are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, about 45 percent of the population.
Meanwhile, nearly 68 million people receive monthly Social Security benefits.
But Social Security makes up the largest amount of spending in the federal budget, about 22 percent. That amounts to nearly $600 billion in the current fiscal year.
Medicare spending comes in just below defense at 12 percent of the budget or $324 billion this year.