Trump suggests he may be open to entitlement cuts

President Donald Trump appeared to suggest in a television interview Wednesday that he’s willing to consider entitlement cuts in the future, a move that would mark a tectonic shift from his stance during his 2016 run for the White House.

Trump suggested he was open to a cut in social safety net benefits, such as Medicare and Social Security, in comments during a CNBC interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

While Trump repeatedly has talked up strong economic growth, the federal budget deficit has swollen as his administration has pressed for tax cuts and increased government spending.

Asked if entitlement cuts would ever be on his agenda, Trump responded, “At some point they will be.”

As a candidate for the White House, Trump stood apart from much of the GOP primary field as he vowed to oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare, while also ensuring every American had health coverage.

In the CNBC interview, Trump called tackling entitlement spending “the easiest of all things” and suggested higher economic growth would make it easier to reduce spending on the programs.

“Well, we’re going — we’re going to look,” Trump said. “We also have assets that we’ve never had. I mean, we’ve never had growth like this.”

Asked for clarification following the interview, White House spokesman Judd Deere noted there had been “no benefit cuts” under Trump, and said the president has kept “his commitment to the most vulnerable Americans, especially those who depend on Medicare and Social Security.”

The budget deficit is expected to reach $1 trillion this year, according to projections by the Congressional Budget Office.

Early in his presidential campaign, Trump said he was a different sort of Republican, one who would not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

The Medicaid promise was ultimately abandoned. The unsuccessful Republican drive to repeal “Obamacare” would have also limited future federal spending on that federal-state health insurance program for low-income people.