A strange thing happened on the way to Republicans’ passage of their big Medicaid-cutting bill: We learned that President Donald Trump seems unaware the bill will cut Medicaid.

Trying to line up support for the bill in a private call Wednesday with House Republicans, Trump offered his advice that, if they want to win elections, they shouldn’t touch Medicare or Social Security — or Medicaid. His comments were reported by Riley Rogerson and Reese Gorman of NOTUS.

This is a bizarre thing to say, because Medicaid is the single program being cut the most in the bill. Estimates suggest that its spending could end up cut by as much as 18 percent, causing about 8 million people to lose Medicaid coverage.

And this isn’t a one-off thing. For months, Trump has publicly promised to protect Medicaid, and reports have described him as queasy about Congress’s plans to do otherwise.

This puts Vice President JD Vance, who has talked a big game about changing the........

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