Fact Check: Bernie Sanders Claims Trump Would Cut Social Security, Medicare

CLAIM: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Tuesday claimed during the Democrat National Convention that former President Donald Trump would cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid if he were elected again.

VERDICT: False. Trump has repeatedly said he would not cut Social Security, Medicare, or other entitlement programs.

Sanders said, “Putting forth budgets that cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is radical,” suggesting that his progressive agenda is not radical.

However, despite the Vermont socialist’s claim, Trump has repeatedly said that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.

Even the Washington Post noted that Trump’s budget proposals did not seek to cut Social Security or Medicare:

The Harris-Walz campaign is being disingenuous and misleading. Virtually all of Trump’s proposed Medicare “cuts” were good-government efforts intended to reduce costs and put the program on a sounder financial footing, with some ideas even borrowed from Obama. The campaign has a slightly stronger case for claiming Social Security cuts, as Trump proposed some changes in programs for people on disability. Still, they were relatively minor. Trump kept his promise not to mess with retirement and survivor benefits — the core of Social Security. [Emphasis added]

In an interview with Breitbart News in December 2022, Trump said, “We’re not cutting Social Security. It’s very simple. It’s a simple answer. We’re not cutting Social Security.”

He continued:

We have to protect it. It’s a contract with the people,. They go in. They work and they do. They put their blood, sweat, and tears into Social Security and then you have a guy like a Paul Ryan or others that want to destroy it. We have a contract. There are plenty of places we can take from where it’s waste. Look at the Green New Deal nonsense. That’s many times Social Security, what they’re doing with the Green New Deal. That is like throwing money out the window. I’m all for the environment. I’m an environmentalist in the truest sense. But the Green New Deal is like the Green New Hoax. It’s a hoax. Then when they talk about Social Security, they’re going to destroy Social Security so they can build more windmills all over the place that don’t work? It’s not going to happen with me.

“I will not cut one penny from Social Security or Medicare, which Joe Biden is destroying by letting millions of people come into our country…I kept that promise for four straight years…By contrast, Joe Biden has cut Medicare Advantage for the last two years,” Trump said in June.

Trump has also issued videos calling on Republicans not to call for cuts to the entitlement programs:

WATCH — Trump Warns GOP Against Cutting Medicare or Social Security amid Debt Ceiling Fight: