Donald Trump hits DeSantis on Social Security and Medicare: In a Truth Social post, the former president hit at his likely rival Ron DeSantis, arguing that the Florida governor wants to cut Social Security and Medicare
Donald Trump Goes on the Attack
Back when he was president, Donald Trump frequently denounced CNN as “fake news.” But this weekend, Trump appeared to base an attack on a political opponent on CNN’s recent reporting.
Earlier this month, CNN’s KFile team reported that Ron DeSantis, earlier in his career, had called for privatizing Social Security and Medicare.
Those statements dated back to DeSantis’ first campaign for Congress in 2012. It was a very different era of Republican politics than today, squarely in the Tea Party era, when Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) was the major Republican star who was calling for austerity and the cutting of budgets.
“I would embrace proposals like [Rep.] Paul Ryan offered, and other people have offered, that are going to provide some market forces in there, more consumer choice, and make it so that it’s not just basically a system that’s just going to be bankrupt when you have new people coming into it,” DeSantis said in a 2012 interview of Medicare, later stating that he supported “the same thing” for Social Security.
The governor did not comment at the time to CNN, and it is not clear whether DeSantis holds those same views today.
Now, Donald Trump has referenced that.
“Ron DeSanctimonious wants to cut your Social Security and Medicare, closed up Florida & its beaches, loves RINOS Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, and Karl Rove (disasters ALL!), is backed by Globalist’s Club for NO Growth, Lincoln Pervert Project, & “Uninspired” Koch — And it only gets worse from there,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday. “He is a RINO in disguise!, whose Poll numbers are dropping like a rock. Good luck Ron!”
The post pairs an attack that’s focused on the issues of Social Security and Medicare, which have suddenly become major issues heading into the 2024 election, along with the upcoming debt ceiling talks.
It’s also a chance for Trump to tie DeSantis to his own political enemies Ryan, Jeb Bush, and Rove, as well as conservative institutions like the Club For Growth and the Koch Network, who are clear about their opposition to the Trump campaign.
It’s not clear how the Lincoln Project, which has been critical of DeSantis, fits into all of that, although some of the members of that Republicans-against-Trump organization have been associated in the past with the Ryan/Tea Party pre-Trump era of GOP politics.
Donald Trump trotted out the Social Security attack in another post on Sunday, ripping a piece about DeSantis by reporter Salena Zito in the New York Post that he called a “puff piece,” before ripping the influence and circulation of both the reporter and the newspaper.
Also notable in Trump’s tweet is that he is continuing to refer to DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious.” It had been reported earlier this month that Donald Trump had been considering bestowing the nickname “Meatball Ron” on his future opponent, although he appears to have decided against it, as pointed out by another Truth Social post over the weekend, which included many of the same themes as the other posts.
“I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” Trump said on his social network over the weekend. “Even though FoxNews killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word “meatball” as a moniker for Ron!”
The initial “Meatball Ron” report had come from the New York Times, but it never stated that he had decided to use the new nickname, only that he had batted around the idea with friends.
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
