At private event, Trump says federal government can’t afford to take care of Americans, that its only responsibility is funding wars

In a speech at a private Easter luncheon last Wednesday that was closed to the press and media, Trump told attendees that funding war is the sole priority of the federal government and that the federal government cannot afford to fund safety net programs like Medicare, Medicaid and child care. Trump said,

“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. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, you have to let states take care of them…”

The White House posted a video of Trump’s speech at the event on social media and then quickly removed it, but Bryan Metzger, a senior politics reporter at Business Insider, downloaded and posted video of Trump’s entire 1 hour, 4 minute speech at the event on Twitter/X on April 1, the same day the speech was given. Metzger has left the video up. 

Trump gave the speech on the same day he gave a prime time address on national television to defend his war on Iran.

Trump told luncheon attendees, “Tonight I’m making a little speech at 9 o’clock and basically I’m gonna tell everybody how great I am.”

He also said the U.S. should “just take” Iran’s oil but “it’s unfortunate” that Americans “don’t have the patience” to take Iran’s oil. Trump said,

“We could just take their oil. But, you know, I’m not sure that the people in our country have the patience to do that, which is unfortunate. You know, they want to see it end. If we stayed there, I, you know, I’d prefer just to take the oil. We could do it so easily. I would prefer that…” 

A December 10, 2025 Pew research poll of 10, 357 adults found that 66% of Americans believe government has a responsibility to fund health care coverage for its citizens.