Former President Donald Trump changed his tune and teased possible cuts to Social Security and Medicare on Monday if he returns to the White House next year.

The former president claimed there is a lot people can do to address the solvency problem facing entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

“So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting,” Trump said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “In terms of, also, the theft and the bad management of entitlements — tremendous bad management of entitlements — there’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”

Trump did not go into specifics on what the cuts or changes would look like, but he alluded to cutting waste, according to a social media post from his war room. The two programs could face a funding problem, by 2028 for Medicare and 2034 for Social Security, if no changes are made.

The former president also claimed the Biden administration would weaken Social Security because the country itself was weak under President Joe Biden.

“I know that they’re going to end up weakening Social Security because the country is weak,” Trump said. “I mean, take a look outside, at the stock market … we’re going through hell. People are going through hell.”

The comment marks a flip from Trump’s previous statements, which warned Republicans not to make any cuts to the federal programs. When some congressional Republicans pitched drastic cuts to the programs during budget negotiations last year, Trump rejected the proposal, claiming, “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”

Republicans have been split on how to address and fix the funding problem for both programs, with some advocating raising the age of retirement and privatizing parts of Medicare. 

Trump’s comments on making cuts to Social Security prompted swift backlash from the president, who vowed there would be no cuts to the entitlement programs under his watch.

The president also promised not to make cuts to the programs during his State of the Union address last week and went off script to encourage Republicans to save the programs.

“If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop you,” Biden said.

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A spokesman for the White House repeated Biden’s devotion to the two programs on Monday, highlighting the president’s opposition to the cuts in his latest budget.

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