President Donald Trump pushed back on NewsNation Wednesday against claims from the left that he intends to slash entitlement programs.
Trump participated in a town hall hosted by NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo. Trump said he has no plans to cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, calling such speculation a dishonest political narrative.
“We’re not doing anything with entitlements, and if you look at Social Security, and, by the way, I think I’m better to say this than anybody because I did nothing with entitlements that would hurt people for four years,” Trump told Cuomo.
Trump said that his only focus is on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, which are issues he said Democrats are deliberately conflating with benefit cuts.
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“I could have done that. If I was going to do that, I would have done it five years ago, six years ago, or seven years ago. I’m not doing anything. You say don’t talk about waste, fraud, and abuse,” Trump said. “There is a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse. There are a lot of illegal aliens that are getting Medicaid that shouldn’t be getting it, and nobody objects to taking people off Medicaid that aren’t allowed to be there.”
Doubling down, Trump flatly rejected the idea that any cuts to core programs were on the table.
“We are doing absolutely nothing to hurt Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, nothing at all,” Trump said. (RELATED: Fraud, Child Sex Changes, Healthcare For Illegals — Dems Spent Years Expanding Medicaid Beyond Recognition)
Democrats accused House Republicans of voting to gut Medicaid after passing a budget resolution, but they failed to offer any concrete evidence to back the claim. When pressed, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries could not identify any provision in the resolution that directly targeted Medicaid.
In reality, the resolution outlines general spending goals without enacting any policy changes, and it makes no mention of Medicaid whatsoever. Still, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal took to X to accuse Republicans of cutting Medicaid to fund tax breaks for the wealthy.
“99% of House Republicans just voted to gut Medicaid so they can lower taxes for the richest 1%,” Jayapal wrote on X. “They’re showing you exactly who they’re working for.”
Even CNN corrected Jayapal after she falsely claimed Trump called for cuts to Medicaid. CNN host Boris Sanchez fact-checked her on air and clarified that Trump had made no such proposal and that her accusations lacked evidence.
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