Trump agrees with longtime rival Elizabeth Warren on need to abolish the cap on US debt
Eliminating the federal limit on government borrowing would remove one hurdle to congressional approval of the Trump's package of major policy priorities for tax cuts and border security.
- Trump agreed with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that the country should abolish the federal limit on borrowing.
- After credit-rating agencies downgraded the U.S. government, Trump said the debt limit should be scrapped to avoid economic catastrophe.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced he agrees with a longtime antagonist, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on the need to abolish the cap on the country’s borrowing.
The announcement marked a thaw in years-long criticism that Trump and Warren of Massachusetts have hurled at each other. The rare consensus came as Congress faces the need to raise the country's debt limit, a hurdle to approving an 1,100-page package of Trump's priorities for tax cuts, spending cuts, and border security.
The United States is nearly $37 trillion in debt and every time it approaches the limit on borrowing set by Congress, lawmakers must take a painful vote to raise it or risk being unable to pay bills.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned the country will reach the cap in August. A provision to increase the limit was included in the House-passed package of Trump’s priorities. The two-term Republican president lashed out this week at Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who opposes the House bill and called for a separate vote on the debt limit.
The debt limit is largely procedural because Congress has always voted to increase it and the debt is incurred by spending more than tax receipts raising the limit itself. But the vote every few years becomes a cudgel against members of the governing party because approval contributes to the appearance of unbridled spending.
Congress imposed a debt limit in 1939 to modernize federal financing, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. But political disputes about the accumulation of debt and difficulties raising the limit led credit-rating agencies to lower their grades for the federal government.
The debate is another example of strange bedfellows in U.S. politics. Trump has derisively called Warren “Pocahontas” for previously claiming Native American heritage.
But Warren posted on social media May 30 that she agreed with Trump that “the debt limit should be scrapped to prevent an economic catastrophe.”
Trump endorsed the proposal in a social media post June 4 and said he was “very pleased to announce” that he agreed with her.
“The Debt Limit should be entirely scrapped to prevent an Economic catastrophe,” Trump said. “It is too devastating to be put in the hands of political people that may want to use it despite the horrendous effect it could have on our Country and, indirectly, even the World.”
Trump and Warren parted ways, however, over the future of his legislative package. Warren, the top Democrat on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, said in a statement after Trump's post that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected his legislative package would increase by debt $2.4 trillion over the next decade.
"That’s a disgusting abomination, as Elon Musk made clear," Warren said.