Trump says he supports abolishing the debt ceiling

President-elect Donald Trump said he supports abolishing the debt ceiling, which the federal government is on track to reach in January. During an interview with NBC News, Trump said getting rid of the federal government’s borrowing limit would be the smartest thing Congress could do. 

“The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge,” Trump told NBC. 

NBC reported that Trump suggested the debt ceiling, or the maximum amount of money the government can borrow to pay its bills, is meaningless. 

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“It doesn’t mean anything, except psychologically,” Trump said.  

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., did not reveal what he thinks of Trump’s proposal. 

“The debt limit issue and discussion is premature at best,” Jeffries told reporters.  

The debt ceiling was last raised in June 2023 when then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated spending cuts with President Joe Biden, in exchange for raising it until January 2025. 

“I just think it’s common sense, it’s reasonable and it’s rational that we spend less next year than we spend this year. Every household would do this,” McCarthy said at the time.  

Fiscal hawks oppose raising the debt ceiling because they don’t believe the government should continue outspending its revenue. The reality is every time Congress needs to give the Treasury Department approval to borrow more money, it does.

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“I’m with President Trump. I do think that the debt limit is this fake sort of a deadline that we’ve never allowed to lapse. One hundred seven years, we’ve never defaulted on the debt. The only thing we have done is continue to increase the debt,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. 

“There’s some Republicans who never voted to raise the debt limit and never will. So that’s just a reality,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. “So you have to get Democrats where you lose Republicans.” 

Even if the government hits the borrowing limit in January, the Treasury can use fancy accounting to keep paying the bills for many months before it defaults.