Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Vice President Kamala Harris on Truth Social for saying that he he wanted to end the Affordable Care Actthe federal law signed by then-President Barack Obama that expanded access to health insurance.

“Lyin’ Kamala is now holding a press conference saying I want to end the Affordable Care Act,” Trump said. POSTED October 31. “I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about it.”

Trump gave mixed and incomplete information about his plan for the 2010 law during the current campaign and about Democrats, including Harris they exaggerated how certain Trump is to remove the law if he regains the Oval Office. His campaign says he no longer wants to repeal it.

But it’s ridiculously wrong for Trump to say he never mentioned getting rid of her. In his first campaign and as president, Trump endorsed it multiple efforts to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

Trump’s new claim falls into another moment in the campaign’s revisionist health history; his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, falsely said in September that Trump “chose to build on” The Affordable Care Act.

Trump’s history with the Affordable Care Act

In his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has promised to repeal the law, sometimes called Obamacare. Shortly after taking office, Trump discussed his “ambitious legislative agenda,” which included gutting the Affordable Care Act. He called it “a disaster” and said he wanted to save families from what he described as “catastrophic premium increases and the debilitating loss of choice and pretty much everything else.”

Trump supported failed repeal-and-replace efforts by congressional Republicans. An example is American Health Care Acta bill to repeal the health care law’s subsidies and regulations, which the House passed in May 2017; failed in the Senate. In June 2020, The Trump administration asked the US Supreme Court to block the law, but the court dismissed the case.

trump card also reduced funds for marketing, information and law registration assistance. Expanded access to short-term plans with limited coverage which Democrats call “junk insurance,” they argue limit care and can lead to surprising medical bills.

During Trump’s presidency, Affordable Care Act enrollment has dropped with over 2 million and the number of uninsured Americans has increased with 2.3 million.

What is Trump’s plan now?

During the 2024 campaign, Trump has said inconsistent things about whether he wants to overturn the law. In late 2023, Trump expressed interest in repealing and replacing the law.

“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus it’s not good healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” Trump wrote Nov. 25 on Truth Social. “We had a couple of Republican senators who campaigned for 6 years against it and then threw up their hands not to stop. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”

On Nov. 29, he wrote: “I don’t want to END Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT WITH MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!”

Since then, it has backfired.

In March, he he wrote on Truth Social that he is “not running to repeal” the health care law, but wants to make it “better” and “less expensive.”

He said during the Sept. 10 debate with Harris that he has “conceptions of a plan” to replace him.

But he did not give more details, the Republican Party platform does not address the Affordable Care Act and did not mention the law in his campaign promises.

In a statement for this article, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “repealing Obamacare is not President Trump’s policy position. As President Trump has said, he will improve our health care system by increasing transparency, promoting choice and competition, and expanding access to new health care options and affordable insurance.”

Our decision

Trump said, “I’ve never mentioned” wanting to end the Affordable Care Act and “I’ve never even thought about that.”

We cannot read his mind, but we have heard his words. And Trump, as a candidate in 2016 and as president, not only entertained and discussed this idea, but sought to end the law through congressional action and at the Supreme Court.

He has said inconsistent things about his plan for the law should he win the presidency — and his latest position is that a repeal is off the table. But it is inaccurate and ridiculous to say that he never “mentioned” that he wanted to shake up the law. We rate the Pants on Fire claim!

PolitiFact writer Samantha Putterman contributed to this report.

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