Former President Donald Trump has shared mixed messages about Social Security and what he plans to do with it if he gets reelected. In a March interview with CNBC, Trump suggested that “cutting” could help keep Social Security running.
“There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting,” Trump said to CNBC. “There’s also theft and bad management of entitlements — a lot of bad management. There’s a lot of things and numbers of things you can do.”
Soon after the CNBC interview, Trump told Breitbart that he wouldn’t cut Social Security.
“I will never do anything that will hurt Social Security or Medicare,” Trump said. “We’ll find other ways. But we won’t do anything to harm them.”
Trump didn’t explain how he would keep Social Security running, but he did say he’d look for ways to cut costs in other areas instead of cutting these benefits.
“There’s so much we can do,” Trump told Breitbart. “There’s so much cutting and waste in other areas, but I’ll never do anything to harm Social Security.”
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Trump’s Past Criticism of Social Security
Before he was president, Trump called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”
“The truth is undeniable. The workers of America have been forced to put a sixth of our wages into a huge Ponzi scheme,” Trump wrote in his 2000 book “The America We Deserve.” “The solution to the Great Social Security Crisis couldn’t be clearer: Let every American put some of their payroll taxes into a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds.”
In the same book, Trump also suggested raising the Social Security retirement age. “We can also raise the age for full Social Security benefits to 70,” he wrote.
Trump’s Proposed Cuts During His Presidency
In his proposed 2021 budget, Trump endorsed cuts to Social Security, specifically disability benefits.
His budget suggested cutting $75 billion from the two federal disability programs — Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) — over 10 years.
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Trump’s Latest Promise
During a recent campaign event in Doral, Florida, Trump promised not to cut Social Security benefits or raise the retirement age.
“I will not cut one penny from Social Security or Medicare,” he said. “And I will not raise the retirement age by one day.”
