Trump Tells CNBC He’s Open to ‘Cutting’ Entitlements Like Social Security — Biden Campaign Quickly Pounces

CNBC anchor Joe Kernan pressed former President Donald Trump on Monday as to whether or not he has the same policies as President Joe Biden on spending, particularly when it comes to entitlements. Trump took issue with the framing of Kernan’s question and declared he was open to “cutting” entitlement programs like Social Security.

Kernan noted there are some “stark policy differences, obviously, Mr. President, but, one thing that I think that at least the perception is that there’s not a whole lot of difference between what you think we should do with entitlements or non-discretionary spending and what President Biden, is proposing.”

“It’s almost a third rail of politics. And we’ve got a, what, a 33, $34 trillion total debt built up and then very little we can do in terms of cutting spending or discretionary is not going to help. Have you changed your your outlook on how to handle entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid? Mr. President, it seems like something has to be done or else we’re going to be stuck at 120% of debt to GDP forever,” Kernan asked Trump.

“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, numbers of things you can do. So I don’t, you know, necessarily agree with the statement,” Trump replied.

Trump’s reply was quickly pounced on by the Biden campaign, which shared the clip online and captioned, “Not on my watch.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates added, “As the President just warned in his State of the Union address, Republican officials plan to cut Medicare and Social Security. Today, in his budget, President Biden honors his ironclad commitment by firmly opposing benefit cuts to Medicare and Social Security.”

Trump’s comments quickly made national headlines as he has long vowed to protect entitlements, offering public assurances to America’s seniors.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told NBC News said in a statement:

President Trump delivered on his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare in his first term, and President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term. The only candidate who poses a threat to Social Security and Medicare is Joe Biden — whose mass invasion of countless millions of illegal aliens will, if they are allowed to stay, cause Social Security and Medicare to buckle and collapse.

Watch the clip above via CNBC.