Former President Trump on Monday argued \u201cthere is a lot you can do\u201d when it comes to cutting funding to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump appeared on CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk Box\u201d in his first interview since President Biden <\/a>delivered the State of the Union address last week. Host Joe Kernen <\/a>noted there are \u201cstark policy differences\u201d between Trump and Biden but possibly \u201cnot a whole lot\u201d when it came to the key entitlement programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kernen asked Trump if he had changed his outlook on how to handle the entitlement programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo 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,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThere\u2019s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do. So I don\u2019t necessarily agree with the statement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump War Room account on X, which officially run by the Trump campaign, clarified his remarks soon after, posting<\/a>, \u201cIf you losers didn\u2019t cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden responded to the interview, writing on X<\/a>, formerly Twitter, \u201cNot on my watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During his address last week, Biden deviated from his planned remarks to call on Republicans to preserve Social Security and Medicare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have two ways to go: Republicans can cut Social Security and get more tax breaks to the wealthy,\u201d Biden said. Responding to boos from Republican lawmakers, Biden said, \u201cOh no? You guys don\u2019t want another $2 trillion tax cut? I kind of thought that\u2019s what your plan was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans brought up potential cuts to Social Security during budget discussions last year, with the Republican Study Committee releasing a proposed fiscal 2024 budget<\/a> with significant cuts to the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Trump urged Republicans to drop this proposal, saying, \u201cUnder no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n