Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg once floated supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, despite criticizing President Trump with the false claim that he would do so.
“When he was running for office, Donald Trump promised not to touch Social Security, and yet as president, he’s proposed cuts,” Bloomberg said Sunday. “When I’m in the White House, I will keep my word to seniors and to the American people.”
During his campaign for president, Trump repeatedly distanced himself from Republicans such as Rep. Paul Ryan, who told Americans that cuts in Social Security and Medicare were essential to the long-term strength of the programs.
But Bloomberg embraced that kind of rhetoric in an interview with Fox News Sunday in 2011.
“We cannot continue to say we’ve got to cut, but we can’t touch Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security, defense,” Bloomberg said in the interview. “That’s virtually 90 percent of all of our spending.”
Democrats have falsely claimed that in a recent interview with CNBC, President Trump signaled he was open to cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
“We’re not touching Medicare,” Trump told United States governors last week. “We want to keep Medicare. We’re not touching Social Security. … We’re not decreasing Medicaid.”