By Kate Sullivan and Tami Luhby | CNN
Former President Donald Trump on Monday suggested he was open to making cuts to Social Security and Medicare after opposing touching the entitlement programs and attacking his GOP presidential primary rivals over the issue.
Trump was asked in an interview with CNBC whether he had changed his outlook on how to handle entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to tackle the national debt.
“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,” Trump said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
He added: “There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”
Following the interview, President Joe Biden responded to a clip his campaign made of Trump’s comments: “Not on my watch.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later told CNN that Trump was “clearly talking about cutting waste, not entitlements.”
“President Trump delivered on his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare in his first term, and President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term,” said Leavitt, who argued: “The only candidate who poses a threat to Social Security and Medicare is Joe Biden.”
“By unleashing American energy, slashing job-killing regulations, and adopting pro-growth America First tax and trade policies, President Trump will quickly rebuild the greatest economy in history and put Social Security and Medicare on a stronger footing for generations to come,” Leavitt said.
When Trump was president, his administration’s budget proposals included spending cuts to Social Security, primarily by targeting disability benefits, and Medicare, largely by reducing provider payments. Trump also signaled in an interview with CNBC in 2020 that he was open to cutting federal entitlements to reduce the federal deficit.
But Trump has…
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