{"id":2429515,"date":"2025-04-30T22:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T02:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tariffs-medicaid-dei-four-takeaways-from-trumps-televised-town-hall-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T22:17:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T02:17:34","slug":"tariffs-medicaid-dei-four-takeaways-from-trumps-televised-town-hall-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tariffs-medicaid-dei-four-takeaways-from-trumps-televised-town-hall-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Tariffs, Medicaid, DEI: Four takeaways from Trump\u2019s televised town hall &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftariffs-medicaid-dei-four-takeaways-from-trumps-televised-town-hall-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2429515&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>During a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cnn-ignores-controversial-topics-during-biden-town-hall\/\" title=\"CNN ignores controversial topics during Biden ...\">televised town hall<\/a> on NewsNation, President Donald Trump discussed the first 100 days of his second administration, addressing topics such as tariffs, Medicaid, and diversity programs. The event featured hosts Chris Cuomo, Bill O&#8217;Reilly, and Stephen A. Smith, alongside audience questions. Trump asserted that he does not believe he made mistakes during this period and predicted important economic improvements soon, although he acknowledged that his tariff policies might face perception challenges that could impact Republican candidates in upcoming elections.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized his commitment to not cutting benefits for programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, stating that he seeks to eliminate waste and fraud instead. Trump also defended his administration&#8217;s efforts to eliminate diversity programs in the federal government, arguing that the focus should be on merit rather than race or other identity factors. He maintained that federal funding for institutions should prioritize those that demonstrate national loyalty. Trump expressed optimism about his policies and the future direction of his administration.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Tariffs, Medicaid, DEI: Four takeaways from Trump&rsquo;s televised town hall<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2110806\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Donald Trump<\/a> reflected on the first 100 days of his second administration and provided a preview of the rest of his term during a televised town hall on NewsNation.<\/p>\n<p>Trump fielded questions on tariffs, Medicaid, and other political flashpoints from the town hall&rsquo;s hosts &mdash; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/chris-cuomo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Chris Cuomo<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/bill-oreilly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Bill O&rsquo;Reilly<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/stephen-a-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Stephen A. Smith<\/a> &mdash; with a curveball thrown by one audience member.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3396835\/trump-appeals-for-time-tariffs-global-economy\/\">Trump appeals for &#8216;time&#8217; as he upends the global economy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3397196\/us-and-ukraine-sign-minerals-deal\/\">US and Ukraine sign minerals deal to forge a &#8216;historic economic partnership&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/politics\/3396730\/tim-walz-says-harris-chose-him-code-talk-white-guys\/\">Tim Walz says Harris chose him for VP to &lsquo;code talk to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tim-walz-says-harris-chose-him-for-vp-to-code-talk-to-white-guys-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Tim Walz says Harris chose him for VP to \u2018code talk to white guys\u2019 - Washington Examiner\">white guys&#038;rsquo<\/a>;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Here are four takeaways from Trump&rsquo;s 30-minute appearance during a town hall that also featured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hhs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Health and Human Services<\/a> Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/rfk-jr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> and former<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/news\/white-house\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"> White House <\/a>chief political strategist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/steve-bannon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Steve Bannon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump &lsquo;doesn&rsquo;t really believe&rsquo; he&rsquo;s made second-term mistakes<\/h2>\n<p>As the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/markets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"> stock market <\/a>recovers from Trump&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tariffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">tariff<\/a> announcements and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/department-of-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Defense Secretary<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/pete-hegseth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Pete Hegseth<\/a> remains in his post after multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/defense\/3391139\/hegseth-signal-app-unsecured-dirty-line\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Signal controversies<\/a>, Trump told Lee Shapiro, the only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/byron-donalds-defends-the-work-of-doge-in-contentious-florida-town-hall-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Byron Donalds defends the work of DOGE in contentious Florida ... - Washington Examiner\">town hall audience member<\/a> who asked the president a question, he &ldquo;doesn&rsquo;t really believe&rdquo; that he made any mistakes during the first 100 days of his administration.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a transition period. I think you&rsquo;re going to see tremendous economic victories over the next period of a year, like far greater than ever imagined,&rdquo; Trump said. &ldquo;Right now, as I said, we&rsquo;re losing billions and billions of dollars on trade. We&rsquo;re going to make millions to billions of dollars, but it takes a little while. That doesn&rsquo;t happen overnight, but it will happen much faster than people understand.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump concedes tariff policy has &lsquo;perception&rsquo; problem<\/h2>\n<p>To that end, Trump did concede his temporarily paused tariffs, which prompted a stock selloff and bond market volatility, have a &ldquo;perception&rdquo; problem and could present a political risk for Republicans during next year&rsquo;s midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Yeah. But I&rsquo;m an honest guy, and we have to save the country,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were losing $5 billion a day with this man that we had as a president, the autopen president. &hellip; I took $5 billion a day and cut it way, way down, way, way back, and I did that within a very short period of time.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Of the political risk, Trump did project confidence that he will &ldquo;be able to convince people how good this is&rdquo; before November 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is what other countries have done to us,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been the laughing stock and the whipping post. We&rsquo;ve been ripped off by every country, practically in the world, just ripped off on trade and, by the way, ripped off with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nato\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">NATO<\/a> and the military too.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">president similarly expressed confidence<\/a> he and his administration will soon sign trade deals with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">India<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/japan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Japan<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/south-korea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">South Korea<\/a>, but told O&rsquo;Reilly he was &ldquo;in less of a hurry than you are.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;They want us. We don&rsquo;t need them,&rdquo; he said, adding of the stock market, &ldquo;It can wait two weeks.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump repeats he will do &lsquo;nothing&rsquo; to harm Medicaid<\/h2>\n<p>Trump has signposted that his next priority is passing his legislative agenda through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/congress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Congress<\/a> as Republicans craft a megabill that renews expiring tax cuts alongside as much as $2 trillion in spending offsets.<\/p>\n<p>But the president took the opportunity during the town hall to underscore that he does not want congressional Republicans to cut benefits from programs such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/social-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Social Security<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/medicare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Medicare<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/medicaid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Medicaid<\/a> through the streamlined budget process.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not doing anything with entitlements,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m better to say this than anybody because I did nothing with entitlements that would hurt people for four years. I could have done that. If I was going to do that, I would have done it five years ago, six years ago, or seven years ago. I&rsquo;m not doing anything.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But Trump is interested in reducing &ldquo;waste, fraud, and abuse&rdquo; in welfare programs, arguing &ldquo;nobody objects to taking people off Medicaid that aren&rsquo;t allowed to be there.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;But we are doing absolutely nothing to hurt Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. Nothing at all,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump defends his DEI overhaul<\/h2>\n<p>Trump stood by his administration&rsquo;s attempts to rid the federal government of diversity programs as Smith asked him to &ldquo;justify&rdquo; the actions and the message &ldquo;they send to the marginalized communities in this country.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have a country that&rsquo;s based solely on merit now, and that&rsquo;s the way it is,&rdquo; Trump said. &ldquo;If somebody&rsquo;s out there doing a great job, and this includes getting into colleges, if you&rsquo;ve worked really hard, we don&rsquo;t look at race, we don&rsquo;t look at color, we don&rsquo;t look at height, or shortness, or weight.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Smith also pressed Trump on concerns his fight with Ivy League universities is suppressing &ldquo;academic freedom&rdquo; after he revoked federal funding from Harvard over its antisemitism policies.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/harvard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Harvard [University] <\/a>gets $4 [billion] or $5 billion a year from the United States government in the form of grants, and they have $53 billion, and yet they don&rsquo;t treat the people right,&rdquo; Trump said. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to give grant money, we want people in that school that are going to love our country, not people that are going to hate our country. They run a bad operation up there, and we have to get to the bottom of it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2110806\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2110806\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump&#8217;s town hall: Key points on tariffs, Medicaid, and DEI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2652,"featured_media":2429516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/trump-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[16574,11975,50406,38665,3634],"class_list":["post-2429515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-dei","tag-medicaid","tag-tariffs-2","tag-town-hall","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/trump-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2652"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2429515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2429519,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429515\/revisions\/2429519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2429516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2429515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2429515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2429515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}