Washington DC - President Donald Trump said the federal government can't be expected to fund "little scams" like health care and daycare because it's only job is waging wars.

During a White House Easter lunch on Wednesday, Trump revealed that he recently told Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to cut off funding for child care, and hinted Medicare and Medicaid should be next.

He argued that states exclusively should fund such programs, and the federal government should focus strictly on beefing up the military.

"We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people, we're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You've got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too," Trump said.

"We have to take care of one thing: military protection – we have to guard the country," he continued. "But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, you have to let states take care of them."

The bizarre rant comes as the US government is believed to have spent more than $18 billion since launching an unprovoked and unpopular war on Iran over a month ago.

Later on Wednesday, Trump gave a televised address in which he repeated his claim that the conflict would be over in weeks, but again failed to lay out any objective or endgame, instead threatening to take Iranians "back to the Stone Ages, where they belong."