Trump on Social Security, Medicare cuts: ‘There is a lot you can do’

Former President Trump on Monday argued “there is a lot you can do” when it comes to cutting funding to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Trump appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in his first interview since President Biden delivered the State of the Union address last week. Host Joe Kernen noted there are “stark policy differences” between Trump and Biden but possibly “not a whole lot” when it came to the key entitlement programs.

Kernen asked Trump if he had changed his outlook on how to handle the entitlement programs.

“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 said. “There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do. So I don’t necessarily agree with the statement.”

The Trump War Room account on X, which officially run by the Trump campaign, clarified his remarks soon after, posting, “If you losers didn’t cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste.”

Biden responded to the interview, writing on X, formerly Twitter, “Not on my watch.”

During his address last week, Biden deviated from his planned remarks to call on Republicans to preserve Social Security and Medicare.

“We have two ways to go: Republicans can cut Social Security and get more tax breaks to the wealthy,” Biden said. Responding to boos from Republican lawmakers, Biden said, “Oh no? You guys don’t want another $2 trillion tax cut? I kind of thought that’s what your plan was.”

Republicans brought up potential cuts to Social Security during budget discussions last year, with the Republican Study Committee releasing a proposed fiscal 2024 budget with significant cuts to the program.

At the time, Trump urged Republicans to drop this proposal, saying, “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”