Trump and DeSantis Bludgeon Each Other Over the Same Extreme MAGA Record

With Ron DeSantis officially entering the 2024 GOP primary, Donald Trump and DeSantis keep trading blows over who has the more extreme agenda — but the simple truth is BOTH OF THEM supported cuts to Social Security and Medicare, praised a national sales tax that would impose huge tax hikes on the middle class, and bragged about their roles in extreme abortion bans.

Trump has repeatedly gone after DeSantis for his support for cutting Social Security and Medicare, but Trump himself has a yearslong record of going after these programs.

Washington Post: “His avowed stance, however, is at odds with Trump’s own record as president: Each of his White House budget proposals included cuts to Social Security and Medicare programs.”

CNN: “Former President Donald Trump once backed raising the retirement age to 70 and called for privatizing Social Security which he called a ‘Ponzi scheme.’ … a CNN KFile review found Trump himself also once praised Ryan on Medicare, along with the 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, without praising their specific policy proposal, which called for similar changes to Ryan’s plan.”

Axios: “Trump suggests entitlement cuts could come in his second term”

CNBC: “JOE KERNEN: Entitlements ever be on your plate?

“PRESIDENT TRUMP: At some point they will be. We have tremendous growth. We’re going to have tremendous growth. This next year I– it’ll be toward the end of the year. The growth is going to be incredible. And at the right time, we will take a look at that. You know, that’s actually the easiest of all things.”

While DeSantis attacks Trump’s record, DeSantis has, in fact, REPEATEDLY supported ending Social Security and Medicare as we know it.

CNN: “Ron DeSantis once expressed support for privatizing Social Security and Medicare giving his rivals an opening”

DeSantis: “There’s nothing left in Social Security. Guys like me pay into it and then the people who are on Social Security, the check immediately goes out to them. … So I would embrace proposals like Paul Ryan offered.”

DeSantis: “We should try to look at entitlements, look at restructuring Medicare.”

Semafor: “During his time in Congress, meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis voted for a series of budget resolutions crafted by the conservative Republican Study Committee that would have voucherized Medicare for new beneficiaries, slowed Social Security cost of living increases, and raised the retirement age for both programs.”

CNN: “A CNN KFile review of comments from DeSantis’ 2012 congressional campaign found he repeatedly said he supported plans to replace Medicare with a system in which the government paid for partial costs of private plans or a traditional Medicare plan. In one interview with a local newspaper, DeSantis said he supported ‘the same thing’ for Social Security, citing the need for ‘market forces’ to restructure the program.”

Trump is criticizing DeSantis after he supported a “fair tax” — a national sales tax that could introduce huge tax hikes and force middle-class families and seniors to pay higher tax rates than the super wealthy — but Trump too has expressed support for it.

Trump: “A fair tax or a flat tax or some other — you know, in Europe, they do the VAT tax, which actually is pretty simple, based on consumption, and it does simplify things a lot. It’s got its big advantages.”

Trump: “I want to make it very simple. … you could go to a form of a flat tax. You could go to a fair tax. There’s a lot of things you could do.”

Semafor: “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, repeatedly sponsored a Fair Tax bill while in Congress.”

Politico: “DeSantis co-sponsored the FairTax in each of his three terms in the House, where he was also a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee and then the House Freedom Caucus. He sounded pretty enthusiastic about the plan too.”

DeSantis: “I had already signed on to a couple of bills. One is H.R. 25, which is, establishes a fair tax. I’m also supportive of a flat tax.”

MSNBC: “The Fair Tax Act of 2015, which DeSantis co-sponsored, would have levied that 23% sales tax as a replacement for ‘the current income and corporate income tax, employment and self-employment taxes, and estate and gift taxes.’ The bill also would have blocked all funding to the IRS after 2019 and, weirdly enough, canceled itself if the 16th Amendment, which first authorized an income tax, wasn’t repealed within seven years of the bill becoming law.”

DeSantis and Trump have gone after each other on abortion, but they are both anti-abortion extremists who have expressed support for banning for abortion nationwide.

Trump: “I was able to knock out Roe v. Wade and give pro-life the right to negotiate and the power … whether it’s five weeks, six weeks, 12 weeks, they’ll be able to negotiate something that will be– will get done.”

Trump: “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone … Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”

Trump: “We’ll pick something that’s going to be very, very good for pro-life … I’m going to be in there pushing.”

DeSantis: “Dobbs returned the issue to the elected representatives of the people, and so I think there’s role for both the federal and the states.”

DeSantis: “Of course, just a short few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to sign the heartbeat bill, which is the strongest pro-life bill Florida’s seen in its modern history. We got it done. And let’s not, and let’s be very clear on this, that when we are acting to protect an unborn child that has a detectable heartbeat, that is humane, that is not harsh.”

DeSantis: “That’s a landmark piece of legislation for this state and I was happy to be able to sign that provision into law in April, but we also understand that there’s much more to do.”

DeSantis: “I signed the bill, I was proud to do it.”