Trump says his tariff revenues will both pay down America’s $37 trillion debt and possibly fund a public “dividend,” but Treasury data shows they fall short of even covering monthly interest costs.
In exclusive interviews with Fortune, Wharton’s Professor Joao Gomes and AEI’s Desmond Lachman warned that while tariffs may slow debt growth, they won’t meaningfully reduce it.
Markets are largely skeptical of Trump’s math despite some unconventional revenue wins.
When I have moments of “he can’t really be this dumb or malicious, can he?” And think there has to be a goal, I wonder if this is it. Casinos are guaranteed cash machines, but a national government can print money. Similar thing? When you’ve run up too much debt in your other businesses, you can take your casino through bankruptcy to pay it all off. Similarly when your national government has run up too much debt, you can reset. When your currency is too strong making everything expensive, you can reset. Could he be trying a similar reset? Devalue the currency so jobs are cheap, manufacturing is cheap, and the debt is cheap? And he’s too stupid to understand the consequences of that?