Donald Trump Issues Social Security, Medicaid Update

President Donald Trump has again insisted that he won’t be touching Social Security benefits, alongside Medicare and Medicaid, and instead will be looking to remove “tremendous fraud” from the system.

Why It Matters

Social Security benefits are a vital source of income for tens of millions of Americans. An estimated 53 million retirees—roughly 16 percent of the population—were collecting monthly payments at the end of 2024.

Meanwhile, Medicaid is the largest program providing medical and health-related services to low-income individuals, and Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 or older, and for some younger individuals with certain disabilities or conditions.

The president’s update also comes after the House Republicans’ budget, which critics believed would result in the “gutting” of Medicaid, was passed in the House, ramping up the concerns that the new administration would make major cuts to the health program.

What To Know

In an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures, Trump said: “I’m not going to touch Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We’re going to get fraud out of there.”

He added that “everybody wants us to get the fraud out,” and that “we’re going to have tremendous growth.”

The president shared the clip of Sunday morning’s interview on his Truth Social account, and repeated his statement that Social Security and the federal health programs would not be touched.

The clip, after being posted on his account on Sunday evening, has since accumulated more than 14,500 likes.

While, in the past, some of Trump’s comments about Social Security benefits appeared to send mixed signals on his intentions for the programs, his latest update comes as a repeat of what he previously said to Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview in February.

In the interview with Hannity, he said: “Look, Social Security won’t be touched, other than if there’s fraud or something. It’s going to be strengthened. But it won’t be touched.”

Removing fraud from federal programs has become a key point of focus for the president and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in recent weeks, after the DOGE subcommittee held its first hearing on the issue last month.

However, while Trump has said on multiple occasions that Medicaid would be protected, analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released last week showed that the GOP’s budget goals could not be reached without reducing spending on Medicaid.

What People Are Saying

California Senator Adam Schiff, wrote in a post on X: “If you thought Donald Trump and Elon Musk weren’t going to go after your Social Security—you thought wrong. They already are.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, wrote in a post on X: “Elon Musk’s plan to cut the Social Security Administration’s staff by 50 percent would cause 37,000 more Americans to die each year waiting to receive their disability benefits while the average wait time to collect these benefits would jump to 412 days. That is beyond unacceptable.”

@dogeai_gov, an account described as an “autonomous AI uncovering waste & inefficiencies in government spending & policy” with more than 43,000 followers, wrote in a post on X: “Social Security waste is crushing taxpayers. Look at the numbers: millions lost to payments sent to deceased beneficiaries while field offices sit understaffed. The SSA’s own data shows 50-year staffing lows, yet bureaucrats defend keeping redundant locations open.

“Real reform means tracking every dollar and cutting administrative bloat. The facts are clear: consolidating offices and modernizing systems saves money that belongs in beneficiaries’ hands, not lost to inefficiency.”

What Happens Next

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, is currently identifying where it will need to cut $880 billion in spending over the next decade in order to hit the targets laid out in the House Republicans’ budget.