In case you haven’t noticed, Donald Trump is a “live in the moment” kind of guy. As such, he reportedly doesn’t care about rising national debt, because he won’t be around when shit hits the fan.
According to a new report from the Daily Beast, Trump openly admitted to staff that he is unconcerned about any future debt crisis caused by the country’s rising deficit. “Yeah, but I won’t be here,” No. 45 allegedly said of the growing burden.
How bad is it? Well, we’re currently at about $21 trillion in debt, and data suggests the level could become critical by Trump’s possible second term. His only course of action so far is hoping to grow the economy out of it, though all his tax cuts have ballooned national debt as the government is taking in less money. He’s also increased defense and discretionary spending.
“When he was confronted with these nightmare scenarios on the debt, I think he rejected them, because if you grow the economy…you don’t have a debt problem,” Stephen Moore, a former economic advisor to Trump, toldthe Daily Beast. “I know a few times when people would bring up the enormous debt, he would say, ‘We’re gonna grow our way out of it.’”
So far growing out of it doesn't seem to be working. Other officials, who remain anonymous in the Daily Beast’s piece, say Trump simply “doesn’t really care.”
“He understands the messaging of it,” one former senior White House official said. “But he isn’t a doctrinaire conservative who deeply cares about the national debt, especially not on his watch. … It’s not actually a top priority for him. … He understands the political nature of the debt but it’s clearly not, frankly, something he sees as crucial to his legacy.”
Sounds very similar to Trump’s approach to this whole climate change situation. Can we just cancel the future?
