US President Donald Trump allegedly stated that the federal government should allocate more funding to defense rather than childcare and healthcare, asserting that these responsibilities should fall to individual states. According to CNN, these remarks were made during a closed-door Easter dinner, with a recording later published and subsequently removed.

The video of Trump's speech was posted on the White House YouTube channel but was later deleted. A journalist from Business Insider managed to save a copy. In his address, Trump recounted a conversation with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, saying, "I told Russell: don't allocate money for childcare. The United States cannot deal with childcare right now. That should be up to the states. We are a big country. We have 50 states."

Trump then added, "We are at war. We don't have time for childcare." He purportedly believes that states should raise taxes to fund childcare and healthcare initiatives. Trump emphasized, "We cannot deal with childcare, Medicaid, Medicare — states can do that themselves. At the federal level, it's impossible. We have to focus on one thing: military defense. We have to protect the country."

The following day, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt clarified that Trump's comments were aimed at addressing fraud in these programs. However, CNN notes that the central theme of the speech was the question of who should pay for medical programs. Trump's statements came just hours before his national address on the war with Iran, in which he claimed the US is close to victory but did not specify a timeline for its conclusion.

Source: kun.uz