Trump to GOP: Don’t touch Medicare or Social Security in debt ceiling fight

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Republicans have vowed not to raise the federal government’s borrowing capacity unless Biden makes deep cuts to federal spending, which could potentially affect social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. Trumps video is a warning to his fellow party members not to go there. Instead, he proposes targeting foreign aid, curbing migration, ending left-wing gender programs from our military, and spending billions on climate extremism.

Reduce waste, fraud and abuse wherever we can find it and there is a lot of it, Trump said. But don’t cut the benefits our seniors have worked for and paid for all their lives. Save Social Security, don’t destroy it.

The video message was shared before its release by POLITICO.

Trumps position reflects his long-held, though unorthodox, belief that the Republican Party should distance itself from attaching itself to entitlement reform. Before being elected president, Trump was highly critical of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) for pushing austerity budgets during the Obama years. As a candidate for president, he insisted he would preserve Medicare and Social Security. There hasn’t been any serious discussion about doing so during his tenure, although he has hinted that he might consider a second term.

However, by releasing his statement today, Trump is putting his fellow Republicans into a political corner. Some of them have openly discussed using the looming moratorium on the debt ceiling to offset cuts in non-discretionary spending, though the party leadership has not fully embraced such a demand.

Over the past few months, Trump himself has insisted that congressional Republicans are using the debt ceiling as a leverage point to achieve policy goals, despite the fact that they have done no such thing any of the times the ceiling has been lifted. of debt when he was president. But his statement makes it clear that he views certain desires as limitations. And it puts him at least partially on the same page as Biden, who has not only insisted he won’t cut Social Security or Medicare but has cut Republicans short of suggesting they would.

The statement is among a series of policy-specific videos Trump has released since formally launching his third bid for the White House. And it suggests the former president is looking to improve his footprint in the current political landscape following weeks of criticism that his campaign got off to a sluggish start.

Trump is scheduled to be in South Carolina next Saturday to make announcements related to campaign hires at an event his aides described not as a rally but a more intimate gathering. Since announcing his third presidential run, Trump has not held any rallies and has stayed at his South Florida properties.

But Trumps team says they are at work behind the scenes from campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach, and the former president will soon begin making more public appearances, including a speech in the upcoming that CPAC conference outside Washington, DC

Trumps team also asked Facebook to allow him back on the platform after he was kicked out of it following the Jan. 6 uprising he helped incite. The social media platform plays an important role in fundraising and voter outreach, according to aides, and Meta is set to decide whether to lift Trumps suspension this month.

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