Democrats try to take down Trump over Social Security and Medicare positions

EXCLUSIVE — Democrats are dinging former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican primary front-runner, for his stances on Social Security and Medicare.

“Donald Trump is teaming up with MAGA extremists Kevin Hern and Rick Scott, two of the biggest champions of cutting Social Security and Medicare in Congress, and their support for Trump is no accident,” Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika told the Washington Examiner. “Trump proposed cuts to Medicare and Social Security programs every single year he was in office and promised to pursue cuts to these programs again if he gets another chance.”

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For Chitika, Trump and MAGA Republicans’ continued attempts to “rip away” Social Security and Medicare from the public is “deeply unpopular and dangerous,” and voters will continue to punish them for their “ploy” at the ballot box during next November’s elections.

The DNC’s criticism is in response to Trump being endorsed this week by Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern (R-OK) and himself endorsing Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) after the former governor similarly backed the former president last month.

Trump has a mixed record concerning Social Security and Medicare. When he was president, Trump proposed spending less on the entitlement programs in his budgets and openly spoke about his desire to cut them while also promoting reforms to payroll taxes, which effectively fund Social Security. In addition, he called for the retirement age to be increased to 70 and for the “Ponzi scheme” Social Security to be privatized in his 2020 book, The America We Deserve, after praising Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and former House Speaker Paul Ryan‘s 2012 Republican presidential campaign platform of changes.

But this year, Trump amplified Democratic scrutiny of his primary opponents for advocating either spending less on Social Security and Medicare or modifying their eligibility requirements.

“Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security,” he said last January during Congress’s federal debt and government spending negotiations. “Cut waste, fraud, and abuse everywhere that we can find it, and there’s plenty of it, but do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security, don’t destroy it.”

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Meanwhile, Hern and Scott have also been vocal about Medicare and Social Security, though Scott has softened his positions after they were attacked by President Joe Biden and other Democrats before last year’s midterm elections.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Trump, Hern, and Scott for comment.