--- title: CPAC: Donald Trump Tells Americans to Get Off Welfare description: President Trump said during his CPAC speech that "it’s time for Americans to get off of welfare." canonical: https://time.com/4682003/donald-trump-cpac-welfare/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-24T16:26:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:30:48.413Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says ‘It’s Time for Americans to Get Off of Welfare’ og:description: The unemployment rate generally has been hovering at its lowest levels since the recession og:url: https://time.com/4682003/donald-trump-cpac-welfare/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15a3b1819a861852/6988bbd08fd2ee818d355e99/trump-cpac1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Addresses Annual CPAC Event In National Harbor, Maryland og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says ‘It’s Time for Americans to Get Off of Welfare’ twitter:description: The unemployment rate generally has been hovering at its lowest levels since the recession twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt15a3b1819a861852/6988bbd08fd2ee818d355e99/trump-cpac1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says ‘It’s Time for Americans to Get Off of Welfare’ > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 24, 2017 4:26 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump pauses while delivering remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 24, 2017 in National Harbor, Md. U.S. President Donald Trump pauses while delivering remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 24, 2017 in National Harbor, Md. Olivier Douliery —Pool/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 24, 2017 4:26 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4672974/donald-trump-white-house-chaos/) said Friday that Americans should stop using welfare. “It’s time for all Americans to get off of welfare and get back to work,” he said during his speech at the [Conservative Political Action Conference](http://time.com/4681802/donald-trump-cpac-speech-media/). “You’re going to love it.” Current [Bureau of Labor Statistics data](https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000) shows that the unemployment rate in the U.S. for January 2017 was 4.8%, up 0.1 percentage points from the previous month but down 0.1 percentage points from January 2016\. 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