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When it comes to the nation’s largest and most popular social-insurance programs, Donald Trump has long said he would leave Social Security and Medicare alone. The president has not, however, always championed Medicaid with the same vigor.
With this in mind, the Republican’s on-air comments during his latest Fox News interview with host Sean Hannity raised a few eyebrows. NBC News reported:
Trump said during tonight’s interview with Elon Musk on Fox News that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would largely be left untouched as his administration moves to cut federal spending and reshape the government. “Social Security won’t be touched, other than this fraud or something we’re going to find,” Trump said. “It’s going to be strengthened, but won’t be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”
The comments came nearly three weeks after the president told reporters that Medicaid would be among the social insurance programs that his White House would “love and cherish” during his second term.
He’s not the only Republican making comments along these lines. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, for example, said this week, “I don’t like the idea of massive Medicaid cuts.” Similarly, media personality Steve Bannon warned GOP officials last week, “Medicaid, you gotta be careful. Because a lot of MAGAs are on Medicaid, I’m telling you. If you don’t think so, you are dead wrong.”
Given all of this, it would appear at face value that Medicaid proponents have reason to feel some cautious optimism about the near future. After all, Democrats remain steadfast supporters of the program, and the Republican president just told a national television audience that Medicaid “won’t be touched.”
There is, however, a catch.
The morning after Trump’s latest Fox News interview was aired, he used his social media platform to endorse a controversial House budget plan — which would, among other things, slash investments in Medicaid.
In other words, over the course of roughly half a day, the Republican president both vowed to oppose cuts to Medicaid and endorsed a plan to make deep cuts to Medicaid.
The obvious question, of course, is why in the world he would do this, and it’s a difficult question to answer with confidence. Maybe he was lying during his Fox interview. Maybe he doesn’t know what’s in the House GOP plan he endorsed. Maybe he assumes the public won’t notice the contradiction.
Whatever the explanation, Trump’s incoherence both complicates his own party’s legislative strategy and imperils the future of a health care program that helps protect tens of millions of Americans.