WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 07: WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 07: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. This is Biden’s last State of the Union address before the general election this coming November. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In an interview on CNBC’s program Squawk Box hosted by Joe Kernen, Donald Trump argued that funds for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare have plenty of fat to trim with budget cuts.
Trump’s remarks come soon after President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address in which he pushed Republicans to help protect funding for Social Security and Medicare.
“We have two ways to go: Republicans can cut Social Security and get more tax breaks for the wealthy,” he said, prompting Republicans in the audience to boo him.
Previously, Trump voiced a strong stance on preserving funding for entitlement plans. Last week, the Republican Study Committee presented a potential fiscal 2025 budget that featured large budget cuts in Social Security and Medicare funding.
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“Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security,” Trump said in response to the proposed budget plan.
Kernen stated that though Trump and Biden have many different viewpoints on policy, they don’t have many differing perspectives on entitlement programs. He asked Trump for his perspective on current entitlement plans after Biden’s remarks.
In response, Trump stated that he doesn’t “necessarily agree” with his previous statements on the topic.
“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. There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do,” Trump said.
Trump’s team took to social media to post a statement clarifying Trump’s remarks, stating that the former president was interrupted.
“If you losers didn’t cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste,” the post by The Trump War Room account read.
Biden also took to X to make a post in response to Trump’s interview.
“Not on my watch,” the post read.
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