America’s debt has blown past $40 trillion, and Vice President JD Vance says Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent already has President Donald Trump’s blessing for the way out.
Vance used a Thursday night appearance on Newsmax’s “Carl Higbie Frontline” to frame the administration’s answer as a growth fight rather than a simple spending-cut promise.
“He [Bessent] has had a very discreet plan, of course, supported by the president of the United States, to get the United States to a point where our economy is growing faster than our debt,” Vance said.
The claim landed as both parties were already trying to turn the new debt marker into a political weapon.
Democrats pointed to Trump’s tax cuts, his military operation with Iran and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Republican fiscal hawks pointed back at Congress and demanded that Washington stop spending beyond its means.
JD Vance on the national debt topping $40 trillion:
“The issue we’ve had under the Biden admin, but we’re still kind of dealing with, is that the debt was growing faster than American GDP.”
Vance says Scott Bessent “is very much on top of it.” pic.twitter.com/flhSaTkGt1
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) August 20, 2026
Vance put the blame first on Biden. “The issue that we’ve had under the Biden administration and what we’re still kind of dealing with is that the debt was growing faster than American GDP,” Vance remarked.
“That’s the problem. That’s something that we’re certainly fixing every single day in the Trump administration.”
“And if you look, we are on track,” Vance said. “So, even though the debt is too high, even though we inherited this debt bomb from the Biden administration, we actually do have a plan to get the economy growing faster than the debt and that’s the most important thing.”
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Vance noted that Bessent “knows it’s a problem, and he’s got the president’s empowerment to do something about it.”
Trump’s defenders also had to answer for the share accumulated during his own time in office.
Roughly a quarter of the $40 trillion total was added while Trump was president, with Treasury Department data showing more than $11.5 trillion in new debt across his first term and the early stretch of his second.
The national tab sat near $20 trillion when Trump first entered office in January 2017. It was around $27 trillion when Joe Biden took office in January 2021 and about $36 trillion when Trump began his second term.
A White House official argued that Trump’s first-term borrowing has to be viewed against the pandemic, saying that emergency period made up much of the increase.
The official also faulted Biden for trillions in COVID stimulus spending and cited economists such as Larry Summers, who warned that the spending would fuel inflation. The White House argued that the inflation spike lifted interest rates and made federal borrowing costlier.
White House spokesman Kush Desai told FOX Business that the administration was focused on reversing Biden’s fiscal record.
“Cleaning up Joe Biden’s reckless fiscal mismanagement has been a top priority for the Trump administration, from slashing waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending to accelerating economic growth and getting America’s debt-to-GDP ratio back on the right track,” Desai said.
Bessent laid out the same basic argument earlier Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” during an interview with co-host Sara Eisen.
“There’s nothing magic about the $40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that,” Bessent said.
He also said the deficit debate had been muddled by “a lot of misinformation” about the deficit and its relationship to gross domestic product.
The Treasury secretary drew a distinction between the headline-grabbing $40 trillion total and the amount held by the public.
The larger figure includes the federal government’s full debt load, including obligations in government accounts such as the Social Security trust funds. Debt held by the public, which leaves out those intragovernmental obligations, was above $32 trillion.
Bessent also argued that tariff refunds had distorted part of the picture.
A February Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s emergency tariffs produced about $100 billion in refunds from money collected under the president’s April 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs before those funds were returned to affected companies.
Bessent said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would implement “the same level of tariffs” and expected “2026 tariff income is going to be roughly what it was in ’25.”
Outside the White House, Bessent later told reporters that Section 301 tariffs would return tariff revenue to last year’s level or higher.
Reporter: “The $40T mark that we passed for the national debt. Would you comment on that and how do we reverse that?”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “The $40T is a big number. It’s smaller when we look at the publicly traded amount… We’re going to have to grow our way out… pic.twitter.com/2zKg6tlduL
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) August 20, 2026
“But with the Section 301 tariffs, I am confident that we will be back to … the same level if not higher of tariff income for last year,” Bessent said.
The $40 trillion mark still drew alarm from Republicans who have long pressed for tighter spending.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida called the situation “bad” in a post on X and put the next move on Congress.
“Congress needs to get spending under control and BALANCE THE BUDGET,” Scott wrote.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky made the same argument by comparing Washington to families that have to live within a budget.
“Instead of paying for things as we go, Washington spends and spends,” Paul said. “You and your family make a budget and live by it. Washington should as well.”
Democrats aimed their criticism at Trump and the Republican spending package passed last year.
Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado said Democrats had warned that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would add trillions to the deficit, including $687 billion in debt-service costs over the next decade.
“Those warnings were ignored. And the national debt has now hit $40 trillion,” Neguse said.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois accused Trump and Republicans of sinking the country deeper into debt despite years of railing against it.
“$40 trillion,” Durbin wrote online. “For a President and a Republican Party who have railed for years against the nation’s debt, it’s ironic that America is deeper than ever in the red under their leadership.”
“From Trump’s billionaire tax cuts to his war with Iran, it’s clear fiscal responsibility is the last thing on his mind,” Durbin added.
