I don’t trust Donald Trump to stand up for rights if he does win re-election – he wanted to cut them in his budget proposals. But his rhetoric is undoubtedly on point:
No one has yet declared their intention to run against Donald Trump for GOP nomination.
Nonetheless, Trump has a pretty good idea of who he’s running against — and in Default Trump Mode, he took the offensive.
“Donald Trump takes on potential rivals for 2024 Republican presidential nomination over Social Security and Medicare,” The Washington Post reported, “grabbing the same GOP division on federal spending that President Biden seeks to exploit.”
trump is positioning straight as a wedge, focusing on disrupting Ron DeSantis’ momentum. Trump released a video last month, encouraging Republicans will use debt ceiling negotiations to cut government spending, but without cutting “a single penny” from Social Security or Medicare.
Donald Trump says he supports rights
Social Security and Medicare are sacred programs that enjoy bipartisan popularity.
Conservatives can talk about austerity and government cuts all they want, but at the end of the day, just about everyone wants some form of safety net.
Donald Trump recognizes this and is making the preservation of rights a central part of his 2024 campaign.
Trump’s emphasis on right “Reflects the potential vulnerability of Republican rivals who were elected to powerful offices in the pre-Trump era, embracing austerity in the latest showdown over the federal debt limit increase,” The Washington Post reported.
“President Trump has been clear about his stance on the matter,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign. “The others will have to decide which side they are on. And others will have to answer for past positions they have taken.
Donald Trump isn’t the only 2024 hopeful among Republicans who have pushed to cut benefit programs. President Joe Biden used his State of the Union address to accuse Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare — suggesting a tact he’s sure to take in the 2024 election.
But Trump, too, is guilty of rights targeting
Trump’s rhetoric, chiding Republicans who have championed cuts to rights programs, sounds good.
The problem is that Trump, too, has targeted rights programs: Each of Trump’s “White House budget proposals included cuts to Social Security and Medicare programs.”
Worse, Trump’s proposed cuts to rights programs came after the 2016 campaign on the principle of preserving rights.
So can we trust Donald Trump this time; would his actions if re-elected reflect his 2024 rights preservation rhetoric? Doubtful.
Asset was a Republican president after all, and Republicans can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to cutting rights. The 2024 GOP field could be crowded with anti-rights Republicans. Take Ron DeSantis, for example.
During DeSantis’ time in Congress, he voted for “three nonbinding budget resolutions calling for raising the retirement age and slowing future growth in Social Security spending.” It received a 0% rating from the Alliance for Retired Americans.
“I think we need to restructure some of these fees,” DeSantis said in 2013. “I think we should try to look at the fees, look at restructuring Medicare so that it provides services at a lower cost to the taxpayer. ”
DeSantis is hopefully not the only GOP with a history of hostility to rights. Nikki Haley, who is expected to announce her candidacy shortly, said lawmakers should reconsider the fees in order to reduce the federal debt.
“What they need to do is look at rights,” Haley said in 2010. “Look at Social Security. Look at Medicaid. Look at Medicare. Look at these things, and let’s get to the heart of what makes grow the government, and let’s get into that.
It has already been said, I will not insist on it. But the rights are not the problem; rights are very popular; rights are a very basic insurance, inherent in any functioning government that treats its citizens with decency.
I do not trust Asset in fact to defend his rights if he were indeed re-elected. But his rhetoric is correct.
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Harrison Kass is the editor of 19FortyFive. A lawyer, pilot, guitarist and minor professional hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a trainee pilot, but was discharged for medical reasons. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison lives in Oregon and listens to Dokken.