President Donald Trump appears willing to look at revamping entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
The president remarked about entitlements during a Wednesday interview with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"Squawk Box" co-host Joe Kernen asked the president: "Entitlements ever be on your plate?"
Trump replied: "At some point they will be. We have tremendous growth. We're going to have tremendous growth. The growth is going to be incredible. And at the right time, we will take a look at that."
Kernen then noted: "If you're willing to do some of the things that you said you wouldn't do in the past, though, in terms of Medicare …"
Trump answered: "We also have assets that we've never had. I mean we've never had growth like this."
It's not clear what type of changes to entitlement programs the president might be looking at.
According to The Washington Post, the government is projected to spend $950 billion on Social Security benefits for older Americans and another $150 billion on Social Security disability payments this year. Another $850 billion will be spent on Medicare.
When Trump ran for the White House in 2016, he promised not to cut Medicare, Social Security, or Medicaid, the newspaper said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request from the Post for further comment.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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