White House ‘not going to cut Social Security:’ LaCivita

The White House won’t cut Social Security, President Trump’s 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita said in a new interview in response to a question about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s comments about the need to examine entitlement spending gained traction.

“They’re not going to cut Social Security, they're not going to cut Medicare, they're just not. That's just fearmongering,” LaCivita said in the interview, before Politico's Dasha Burns noted that Musk had talked about waste in Social Security, suggesting there could be cuts.

“He’s not the president. He doesn’t get to make those decisions,” LaCivita then said, referring to Musk.

When Burns asked LaCivita why Musk had offered the remarks in the interview with CNBC's Larry Kudlow, LaCivita said, "I don't know, I don't speak for him."

Musk is serving as a top adviser to the president and is leading the effort to overhaul government spending.

In the interview with Kudlow, Musk said, "The waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements, so that’s the big one to eliminate.”

Musk has also referred to Social Security as the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.

Trump has long insisted he will not cut Social Security benefits, though he has criticized what he has described as fraud in the system. Musk and Trump have both come under scrutiny over statements about people as old as 150 getting Social Security checks.

The White House earlier this week also asserted that Trump would not cut Social Security or Medicare.

The White House claimed Musk was talking about cutting fraud in the Kudlow interview.

“The Trump Administration will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits,” the White House said in a press release. “President Trump himself has said it (over and over and over again).”

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