Trump’s Nephew Says Proposed Budget Cuts Lack ‘Humanity And Decency’

Fred Trump III, President Donald Trump’s nephew, said Thursday evening that the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts lack “humanity and decency.”

The Context

The younger Trump’s remarks come as Republicans are in the midst of ironing out a budget for the next fiscal year.

House Republicans recently passed a Trump-backed budget plan that calls for more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade in order to fund Trump’s agenda.

Senate Republicans have pumped the brakes on the House plan, however, saying it needs significant changes.

Trump, meanwhile, has championed the House’s proposal while also pledging not to make cuts to Medicare or Medicaid in pursuit of his political agenda. But the Congressional Budget Office said this week that Republicans won’t be able to meet their targets without also slashing Medicaid and Medicare benefits that millions of Americans rely on.

What To Know

Fred Trump told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday that if the Trump administration cuts Medicaid, it would be devastating for his son, William, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder that requires lifetime care.

“It’s tens of millions of people like William,” Fred Trump told Burnett. “What I think is lacking is the humanity and decency in the way the administration is going about these cuts.

“And I will stick with the disabled community because it’s a daily part of my life, and again, for the tens of millions,” he added. “These cuts could be devastating to families … I have had the pleasure of surrounding myself with very smart people over the years to give me the information I need to go out to just the people at large in this country and other countries, for that matter.”

The younger Trump said he also spoke with the president about “value-based care” in an Oval Office visit during Donald Trump’s first term.

“I talked to him about this,” Fred Trump said. “And what it is, basically, is spend less money but get results for it. Have preventative care … I implore people who are doing these cuts to understand: it sounds great to just cut costs, but what they’re not realizing is by cutting those costs, in the backend, the expenses could be so much more.”

The president’s nephew went on to say “we could … use whatever metaphor you want for cuts,” but “I’m more on the scalpel side.”

“I can see having, again, living through this every day, that cutting something arbitrarily, not considering what the after-effects could be, that could just absolutely devastate families,” he added.

Fred Trump went on to say he’s “not at all” surprised by the president’s actions in the first six weeks of his second term.

“As well as I know him and if anybody didn’t think this was happening, couldn’t have happened, they weren’t listening,” Fred Trump said. “He has all the energy in the world. I wish he could dial it back a bit and be a little more thoughtful and the people are working with him on these things.”

Fred is the son of Donald Trump’s late brother, Fred Trump II. He and his sister, Mary, have frequently criticized their uncle since his first presidential term.

The younger Trump revealed last July, while Donald Trump was campaigning, that he planned to vote for then vice president and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

He called his uncle “atomic crazy” and said he had once witnessed Donald Trump using racial slurs decades earlier.

“Families are complicated,” Fred Trump told ABC News. “Every family has their crazy uncle. My Uncle Donald is atomic crazy. And … he has put his mark on the family history.”

The younger Trump made those comments while promoting his book, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way.

A Trump campaign spokesperson told ABC at the time that Fred Trump’s claims were “completely fabricated.”

What People Are Saying

Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas was escorted out of the House chamber on Tuesday, as Trump was addressing a joint session of Congress, after yelling: “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!”

Democratic Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, who sits on the House Budget Committee, said in a statement: “This letter from CBO confirms what we’ve been saying all along: the math doesn’t work without devastating Medicaid cuts. Republicans know their spin is a lie, and the truth is they have no problem taking health care away from millions of Americans so that the rich can get richer and pay less in taxes than they already do.”

Republican Representative Claudia Tenney of New York wrote on X Tuesday: “@HouseGOP took the first step today toward delivering on our promise to the American people: to craft a fiscally responsible budget that reins in out-of-control spending and lowers costs for hardworking families.”

What Happens Next

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Politico Monday night that he doesn’t plan to bring the House budget resolution to a vote on the Senate floor any time before the Senate’s break, which starts after March 14—the same day as the deadline for Congress to pass a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.