Former President Trump says he wants to unilaterally cut government spending, according to an unreleased campaign video reviewed by Semafor.
In the video, Trump said he would use a process known as impoundment to force “every federal agency” to reduce spending.
Doing so would be sure to bring up constitutional and legal issues for Trump, who also sought to use the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to withhold funds to Ukraine during his presidency.
“When I return to the White House, I will do everything I can to challenge the Impoundment Control Act in court, and if necessary, get Congress to overturn it,” Trump says in the video. “We will overturn it.”
The Government Accountability Office found Trump violated the Act in 2020 by withholding congressionally-approved funds to Ukraine.
The episode was a part of the first impeachment of Trump, who Democrats accused of withholding funds from Ukraine to get that country’s political leadership to get him dirt on Joe Biden, who eventually defeated Trump for the presidency in 2020.
The impoundment law allows the president to delay funding, but Congress must approve the actual elimination of funds already approved by Congress.
Trump, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, says in the video that funding to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would not be affected by any cuts he would seek to make to spending through impoundment.
Spending decisions are shadowing the presidential race after tense negotiations between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill over the debt ceiling.
Just days before a potential U.S. default, congressional leaders and Biden reached an agreement to slightly reduce government spending over the next year, reductions that were lower than many GOP hardliners demanded.
Those same hard-liners are now pressing for deeper spending cuts than were agreed to as part of that deal.