Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opened the door Monday to “cutting” spending under Social Security and Medicare, drawing swift pushback from President Joe Biden and elevating a key policy battle in the 2024 election.

Phoning into CNBC's "Squawk Box," Trump was pressed on how he plans to resolve the long-term solvency problems of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

“So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting,” Trump responded. “And in terms of, also, the theft and the bad management of entitlements — tremendous bad management of entitlements — there’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”

The former president didn’t get specific about how he'd change the retirement programs. A Trump campaign spokesman said he was referring only to “cutting waste and fraud,” but did not provide additional policy details on how he’d go about that or how much can be saved.

Biden’s campaign tweeted out the video and the president responded quickly: “Not on my watch.”

“If anyone tries to cut Social Security or Medicare, or raise the retirement age again, I will stop them,” Biden said during a speech Monday in New Hampshire. “This morning, Donald Trump said cuts to Social Security and Medicare are on the table again.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...den-rcna142776