At a closed-door White House Easter lunch on April 1, 2026, Trump recounted telling OMB Director Russell Vought, “Don't send any money for day care,” and argued that day care should be left to the states. “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,” he said. The lunch was closed to the press, but the White House posted video of the remarks on its YouTube page and then took it down; a Business Insider reporter preserved it.
He extended the argument to the largest federal health programs: “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.” He said states should pay, adding, “They'll have to raise their taxes.” He made the remarks hours before a primetime address defending the Iran war, which the US and Israel launched with strikes on February 28.
The White House said Trump was “referring to rooting out the billions of dollars of fraud in these vital programs” and that he “will always protect and strengthen Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.” Trump did accuse states of child care fraud during the lunch, but his larger argument, as CNN's analysis noted, was about who should pay for the programs.
The Pentagon put the cost of the war's first six days at $11.3 billion, and the cost was estimated at $18 billion as of March 19, according to Newsweek. Axios reported that Republicans were weighing federal health spending cuts to offset a budget bill carrying as much as $200 billion for the Iran war and immigration enforcement. A KFF poll from April 2025 found 79% of voters opposed major cuts to Medicare and 76% opposed major cuts to Medicaid. The Center for Medicare Advocacy has estimated that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts more than $1 trillion in federal support for health programs.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren had written days earlier: “Republicans in Congress want to cut Americans' health care to pay for more war in Iran. Let that sink in.” Sen. Andy Kim responded to the lunch remarks: “It is possible. Trump just doesn't care to do it.”
Correction (October 14, 2026): An earlier version presented “We can't take care of day care. We're fighting wars” as a single quote and as Trump's instruction to Vought; it joined two separate sentences, and the instruction to Vought was “Don't send any money for day care.” The Warren quote has been restored to her exact wording. The $18 billion war cost is now described as an estimate, the KFF poll figures as opposition to major cuts, and the $200 billion figure as a budget bill Republicans were weighing rather than an adopted proposal. A claim that the war was started without congressional authorization was cut because the remaining sources do not address it, as was editorial commentary describing the war as an excuse.