Guest Morning Joe host John Heilemann remarked Friday that Donald Trump has a "far-left Democratic view" on entitlement reform during a breakdown of the previous night's Republican debate.
Social Security was a key topic Thursday with the debate being held in Florida, which has a high population of senior citizens. Trump insisted repeatedly he did not want to "touch" Social Security during the debate.
"Marco Rubio had a large, impassioned and I thought quite strong set of answers about entitlement reform," Heilemann said, noting that absent host Joe Scarborough applauded Rubio's answers on Twitter. "Donald Trump is the one Republican who basically says he's not going to touch Social Security. He has a far-left, Democratic view on entitlement reform, and I think that it tells you something about Trump's strength that it doesn't hurt him with any constituency across the ideological spectrum in the Republican Party."
Heilemann said Trump's willingness to "engage in a lot of apostasy" on historically Republican issues made him a potentially "dangerous general election candidate."
Thursday night, CNN moderator Dana Bash pointed out to Trump that the Social Security program was projected to go bankrupt in 20 years unless adjustments were made.
"Specifically, what would you do to stop that from happening?" Bash asked.
Trump's response was that the Democratic presidential candidates didn't want to touch Social Security and neither did he.
"Well, first of all, I want you to understand that the Democrats, and I've watched them very intensely even though it's a very, very boring thing to watch, that the Democrats are doing nothing with Social Security," Trump said. "They're leaving it the way it is ... I will do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is."