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Trump’s Pants on Fire claims he ‘never mentioned’ ending the Affordable Care Act

Umito November 5, 2024

WLRN partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check Florida politicians. The Pulitzer Prize-winning team seeks to present the real facts, unaffected by agenda or bias.

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Vice President Kamala Harris on Truth Social for saying he wanted to end the Affordable Care Actthe federal law signed by then-President Barack Obama that expanded access to health insurance.

“Lyin’ Kamala is now giving a press conference to say I want to end the Affordable Care Act,” Trump said. job October 31. “I never mentioned that, I never even thought about such a thing.”

Lyin’ Kamala is now giving a press conference, saying I want to end the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned that, I never even thought about such a thing. She also said I wanted to end Social Security. Likewise, I never talked about it or thought about it. It is she who…

– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2024

Trump gave mixed and incomplete information on his plan for the 2010 law during the current campaign, and Democrats, including Harris to have exaggerated how certain it is that Trump will scrap the law if he wins back the Oval Office. His campaign says he no longer wants to repeal it.

But it is ridiculously false for Trump to say that he never discussed the possibility of getting rid of it. During his first campaign and as president, Trump supported multiple efforts to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

Trump’s new assertion fits another moment in the campaign’s revisionist history on health care; his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, falsely claimed in September that Trump “chose to rely on” the Affordable Care Act.

Trump’s history with the Affordable Care Act

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised to repeal the law, sometimes called Obamacare. Shortly after taking office, Trump discussed his “ambitious legislative agenda,” which included eliminating the Affordable Care Act. He called it a “disaster” and said he wanted to save families from what he described as “a catastrophic increase in premiums and a debilitating loss of choice and just about everything else.”

Trump supported unsuccessful efforts by congressional Republicans to repeal and replace. An example is the American health care lawa bill to repeal health law subsidies and regulations, which the House passed in May 2017; he failed in the Senate. In June 2020, The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the law, but the court threw out the case.

Asset also reduced funding for marketing, awareness raising and assistance with registration of the law. It expanded access to short-term, limited coverage plans which Democrats call “junk insurance,” arguing that they limit care and can lead to surprise medical bills.

During Trump’s presidency, Affordable Care Act enrollment declined of more than 2 million and the the number of uninsured Americans has increased of 2.3 million.

What is Trump’s plan now?

During the 2024 campaign, Trump made inconsistent comments about his desire to repeal the law. In late 2023, Trump expressed interest in repealing and replacing the law.

“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, and what’s more, it’s not good health care. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” Trump wrote Nov. 25 on Truth Social. “We had a few Republican senators who campaigned for 6 years against this plan, then raised their hands not to stop it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”

On November 29, he wrote: “I don’t want to end Obamacare, I want to REPLACE it with MUCH BETTER HEALTH CARE.” Obamacare sucks!!! »

He has since reversed course.

In March, he wrote on Truth Social that he’s “not running to end” the health care law, but wants to make it “better” and “cheaper.”

He said during the September 10 debate with Harris, he said he had “the idea of a plan” to replace him.

But he did not give more details, believes the Republican Party platform does not address the Affordable Care Act, and he did not mention the law in his campaign promises.

In a statement for this article, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “repealing Obamacare is not President Trump’s policy position.” As President Trump has said, he will improve our health care system by increasing transparency, promoting choice and competition, and expanding access to new affordable health care and insurance options.

Our decision

Trump said, “I never mentioned” wanting to end the Affordable Care Act and I “never even thought about such a thing.”

We can’t read his mind, but we heard his words. And Trump, as a candidate in 2016 and as president, not only considered and discussed this idea, but also sought to end the law through action by Congress and the Supreme Court.

He has said inconsistent things about his bill if he wins the presidency – and his latest position is that repeal is not an option. But it is inaccurate and ridiculous to say that he never “mentioned” his intention to undermine the law. We are evaluating the Pants on Fire claim!

Our sources