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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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President Donald Trump has said the U.S. government "can't take care" of child care, Medicaid or Medicare costs, suggesting states should fund the provisions while the federal government focuses on "military protection."
"We're fighting wars," Trump told an audience at a White House Easter lunch on Wednesday, as seen in a video posted on and then removed from the White House's website. "We can't take care of day care."
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment by email early Thursday morning.
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Why It Matters
The U.S. and Israel launched joint military strikes on Iran on February 28, kicking off the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The war has caused a spike in oil and gas prices across the world, including the U.S., where drivers are now paying a national average price of over $4 per gallon of regular gas, over a dollar more than a month ago.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the first six days of the war alone cost the country $11.3 billion. The cost was estimated to have gone up to $18 billion as of March 19, and it would be even higher now that the war is in its second month. Axios reported earlier this week that Republicans are considering federal health spending cuts to pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement.
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What To Know
Citing allegations of rampant fraud at child care centers managed by the Somali community in Minnesota, which led to the Trump administration freezing child care funding for the state, the president called for a stop to what he called "pure theft" from Democratic and Republican states.
"I hope we get to it," the president said of ending federal funds for child care. "We can balance the budget. We can have a surplus if you can stop that. And that does not include Medicare, Medicaid—that's even bigger."
Referring to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, Trump added: "I said to Russell, 'Don't send any money for day care because the United States can't take care of day care.' That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of day care. We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars.
"We can't take care of day care. You got to let a state take care of day care. And they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They'll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up. It's not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare—all these individual things.
"They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country."
Business Insider reporter Bryan Metzger wrote on X that the White House might have unintentionally made the footage of the Easter lunch reception public on YouTube, and that it had "now been made private." However, the reporter had downloaded the video and later shared it on X.
The Trump administration introduced significant cuts to Medicare and Medicaid last year with the president's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with the Center for Medicare Advocacy estimating that the spending package would cut over $1 trillion in federal support for health programs.
In January, the administration also temporarily withheld federal funding for child care programs in the Democratic-led states of New York, California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. The administration said the move was motivated by "fraud fears" in those states.
"For too long, Democrat-led states and governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch," Andrew Nixon, the deputy assistant secretary for media relations at the Department of Health and Human Services, told Newsweek at the time.
Earlier this week, a California judge struck down the federal government's decision to freeze $10 billion in child care funding for the five states. A judge in New York had previously halted the decision.
What Happens Next
Recent polling has shown that a vast majority of Americans, regardless of their political views and affiliations, are against cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. A KFF poll conducted in April 2025 found that 79 percent of U.S. voters opposed major cuts to Medicare, and 76 percent opposed major cuts to Medicaid.
The unpopularity of such cuts, combined with growing concerns surrounding the impact of the Iran war and Trump's plunging approval rating, does not bode well for the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections in November.
Democrats have taken notice. In a social media post last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote: "Republicans in Congress want to cut Americans' health care to pay for more war in Iran. Let that sink in."
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