'What happened to that Donald Trump?' CNN host uses Trump's words against him in takedown

CNN host Abby Phillip threw President Donald Trump's words back in his face in a searing takedown on "NewsNight."

During an Easter event at the White House on Wednesday, Trump claimed the federal government cannot afford to continue paying for programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Instead, he suggested that states raise their taxes to pay for it, and that the U.S. government should focus solely on defense spending.

Phillip pointed out that Trump's comments seemed to stand at odds with other campaign pledges he's made in the past. She played a clip of him talking about "endless" wars in the Middle East, and how the money used to fund them could have "rebuilt" America.

"The people opposing us arethe same people ... who've wasted $6trillion on wars in the Middle East," Trump said in one clip from 2016."We could have rebuilt our country twice ... Imagine if thatmoney had been spent right herein our home."

"What happened to that Donald Trump?" Phillip asked the panelists.

Lydia Moynihan, a columnist for The New York Post, argued that Trump is right to reduce spending on "entitlements."

"Donald Trump of ten years ago didn't think so," Phillip chimed in.