Teflon presidential candidate Donald Trump remains on top of most polls in his quest to receive the republican nomination. To date, Trump has contradicted himself and changed his stance over the years on issues, which is not a crime for political candidates, but he has also made what many consider to be derogatory comments on ethnicity and religion. So far this has not derailed his quest for the White House, in fact every time Trump makes a new outlandish comment his poll numbers seem to rise. Pointing out the comments he has made about Social Security is unlikely to change that, but it’s still interesting to see what Trump has said on the issue whether he believes it or not.
In Trump’s 2000 book The America We Deserve he said “I would never support what has to be the craziest idea in the history of U.S. politics: allowing the government to invest Social Security retirement funds in the stock market. Not only would a market downturn spell disaster for millions of retirees, but the process by which government would choose stocks would also be entirely political, making lobbyists and other political hacks the new masters of the universe.”
In the same book, Trump seems to contradict himself when he said “allow any American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds. Federal guidelines would make sure that your money is diversified, that it is invested in sound mutual funds or bond funds.”
Maybe Trump is unaware that mutual funds can be impacted by a “market downturn,” but he also is okay with allowing the government to establish federal guidelines for these investments, which according to Trump, is much different than allowing the government to invest.
It is difficult to determine Trump’s real stance on any issue, but he seems to be a proponent of protecting Social Security benefits and has said that making changes that would reduce benefits is not a formula to win elected office.
In Trump’s 2011 book Time to Get Tough Trump said “I know there are some Republicans who would be just fine with allowing these programs to wither and die on the vine. The way they see it, Social Security and Medicare are wasteful entitlement programs, but people who think this way need to rethink their position. It’s not unreasonable for people who paid into a system for decades to expect to get their money’s worth – that’s not an entitlement, that’s honoring a deal. We as a society must also make an ironclad commitment to providing a safety net for those who can’t make one for themselves.”
When it comes to getting elected, Trump said “As republicans, if you think you are going to change very substantially for the worse, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you are going to win elections, it just really is not going to happen.”
At the beginning of the election process it was thought that Trump had no real possibility of becoming the republican nominee for president, but that is not the case any longer, so Trump’s stand on Social Security issues are important to know. To learn more about what Trump has said about Social Security over the years click here.
