Trump bashes the GOP lawmakers who want to 'destroy our great Social Security' by raising the retirement age to 70

• Some GOP lawmakers are reportedly eyeing raising the retirement age for Social Security to 70.
• Trump bashed the idea at CPAC, saying the program should be kept as is.
• Trump has previously called out Republicans for considering cuts to the program in debt ceiling talks.

Former President Donald Trump is once again blasting his own party for discussing changes to Social Security.

During the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — an annual three-day conference that brings conservative figures to Washington, DC — Trump took to the stage to criticize Republican lawmakers who are eyeing changes to Social Security that would make benefits more difficult to access. 

Independent Sen. Angus King and Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy are reportedly eyeing raising the retirement age to 70 as part of their plan to reform Social Security. While both lawmakers signaled the plan is not final yet and would not result in any cuts to Americans relying on the program's benefits, Trump bashed the idea of raising the retirement age during his CPAC remarks.

"We're not going back to people that want to destroy our great Social Security system, even some in our own party, I wonder who that might be, that want to raise the minimum age of Social Security to 70, 75, or even 80 in some cases, and that are out to cut Medicare to a level that it will no longer be recognizable," Trump said. "And when that was their original though, that's what they always come back to." 

This isn't the first time the former president cautioned the GOP against touching those two programs. In January, Trump said in a video message that "under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security."

"Cut waste, fraud and abuse everywhere that we can find it and there is plenty, there's plenty of it," he continued. "But do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security, don't destroy it."

As Trump referenced, some Republican lawmakers had previously expressed the intent to cut Medicare and Social Security as a way to cut spending overall. These issues regained prominence as the House GOP began floating ways to raise the debt ceiling and keep the US on top of paying its bills, in the form of spending cuts. While Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and his colleagues affirmed that Medicare and Social Security are off the table in those negotiations, Democrats aren't so sure.

"You say Social Security and Medicare is off the table, but until the American people see a plan, they cannot take the Speaker at his word," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said last week.

As Insider reported, the US could be as soon as four months away from a default if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling by then, and negotiations are stalled. President Joe Biden has said that raising the ceiling should be bipartisan, and without negotiations, and while McCarthy said that defaulting "is not an option," he has yet to disclose what exactly he wants in a potential debt limit deal.

"I'm more than willing to sit down and talk to him and work with him on how we change this together," McCarthy said last month on negotiating with Biden.