Trump heads to The Villages today amid impeachment probe

Orlando Sentinel (FL)

The official subject of President Trump’s visit to The Villages this afternoon is Medicare.

But his first large event before a friendly crowd since Congress began impeachment hearings last week could make it hard for him to resist sounding off. The president has gone off-script and made politically charged statements at what were billed as non-political events before.

At the event, scheduled to be held at about 1:30 p.m. at the 1,000-seat Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center, Trump is expected to announce an executive order titled “Protecting Medicare from Socialist Destruction.”

Trump will speak before an invitation-only crowd at The Villages, which sprawls across northeast Lake, south Marion and east Sumter counties.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a key Trump ally, is also scheduled to attend.

The topic of Medicare is an important one for both Florida, a key swing state where a third of the population is age 55 or older and where 4.5 million seniors are enrolled in it. The Villages is also the largest retirement community in the country and was one of Trump’s most solid areas of political support in the 2016 election.

In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday, Seema Verma, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, wouldn’t reveal the details of Trump’s announcement.

But she said Trump’s vision for the future of Medicare is “not only going to improve and strengthen the Medicare program, but they’re also going to have that [ripple] effect on the entire health care system.”

Verma cited figures showing that on average, Medicare Advantage premiums in 2020 are expected to decline 23 percent from 2018 -- the lowest in the past 13 years.

The title of the order, citing “socialist destruction,” could be seen as a criticism of Medicare for All plans being proposed by Democratic presidential candidates including U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders. I-Vermont, a self-described Democratic Socialist, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Those plans, while not quite based on how the actual Medicare system currently works despite its name, would replace private coverage with a national system where the government reimburses medical providers. Sanders and Warren say that while taxes will go up, premiums would go down or even disappear.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and other candidates are backing a public option plan that preserves private plans but allows anyone to enroll in a government-backed program such as Medicare.

“The Medicare program was designed for seniors,” Verma said. “This is a program that people have paying into their entire lives. Medicare-for-All proposals would strip private insurance from 180 million people. … And we think our seniors that have paid into this program their entire lives deserve better.”

Trump postponed The Villages visit, originally set for Aug. 6, after the twin shootings on Aug. 3 that killed a combined 29 people. Trump visited both cities on Aug. 7.

The event will also be Trump’s first visit to Central Florida following his campaign kickoff event in June at the Amway Center in Orlando.

Trump’s last official, non-campaign visit to Orlando was his speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in October 2018, in which he delved into the issue swirling around Washington at the time, the confirmation battle for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Official events are supposed to be nonpartisan.

But Trump told the hundreds of chiefs from across the country, including then-Orlando Chief and current Orange County Sheriff John Mina, a Democrat, that “Democrats fight us at every single turn, whether law enforcement or military.”

Sumter County provided the president with 68% of its votes in 2016. The group “Villagers for Trump” has also held parades of golf carts in support of him.

slemongello@orlandosentinel.com

___

Visit The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) at www.OrlandoSentinel.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.