Former President Donald Trump has declared that he is not running in this year's presidential election "to terminate" the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while claiming that President Joe Biden has been misleading the public on Trump's stance.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to repeal the ACA, which was developed under former President Barack Obama and is more commonly known as "Obamacare," since launching his political career with a successful 2016 presidential bid. He unsuccessfully attempted to kill the program shortly after taking office but was blocked by Republicans who resisted the move in the Senate.
Only months ago, Trump called Obamacare "not good healthcare" and vowed to replace it with his own yet-to-be-revealed program, while also recently denouncing Republican senators who "raised their hands not to terminate it" as "a low point for the Republican Party."
In a Tuesday Truth Social post laden with spelling errors and heavy doses of all-caps text, Trump seemingly reversed his position by endorsing the ACA, while promising to keep the program in place but make it "much, much, much better" during a potential second term.
"I'm not running to terminate the ACA, AS CROOKED JOE BUDEN [sic] DISINFORMATES [sic] AND MISINFORMATES [sic] ALL THE TIME, I'm running to CLOSE THE BORDER, STOP INFLATION, MAKE OUR ECONOMY GREAT, STRENGTHEN OUR MILITARY, AND MAKE THE ACA, or OBAMACARE, AS IT IS KNOWN, MUCH BETTER, STRONGER, AND FAR LESS EXPENSIVE," Trump wrote.
"IN OTHER WORDS, MAKE THE ACA MUCH, MUCH, MUCH BETTER FOR FAR LESS MONEY (OR COST) TO OUR GREST [sic] AMERICAN CITIZENS, WHO HAVE BEEN DECIMATED BY BIDEN, HIS RECORD INFLATION, BAD ECONOMY, AFGHANISTAN CATASTROPHE, AND JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE," he added.
Trump went on to call Biden "BY FAR, THE WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," before concluding his post with "MAGA2024."
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Biden and Trump campaigns via email on Tuesday.
In addition to failing at the legislative level, efforts by Trump and other Republicans to repeal the ACA using the courts have also been unsuccessful, with the conservative-led Supreme Court having rejected multiple attempts.
During an Iowa campaign speech in January, Trump lamented that the late Republican Senator John McCain "couldn't get his arm up" to repeal Obamacare in 2017 but promised to attempt to replace the program yet again if he is elected in November.
Biden referenced Trump's efforts to strike down the ACA on Saturday in a post to X, formerly Twitter. The president also claimed that Trump was hoping to make cuts to Social Security and Medicare, although the Trump campaign has previously denied this.
"Donald Trump was just one vote away from repealing the Affordable Care Act," Biden posted. "Now, he's determined to try again, running to 'terminate' it—and cut Medicare and Social Security while he's at it. I won't let it happen."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
