By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch
The United States is not “that rich right now,” President Trump said Sunday while also announcing he will escalate trade tariffs and back Elon Musk’s attack on targets of “wasteful” spending, which Trump measured during a Fox News interview using U.S. projected debt.
“We owe $36 trillion,” he told Fox News’s Bret Baier. “That’s because we let all these nations take advantage of us.”
Voicing doubts about America’s economic stability at the outset of his governance is an unusual political strategy, especially while Trump was pressed over the weekend to explain Musk’s blast through existing statutes and congressional appropriations in pursuit of less spending. The president wants to enact and extend tax cuts this year, a legislative hurdle. Lower taxes mean lower federal revenues, and if Trump’s benchmark is fiscal responsibility, the math will matter.
“The people want me to find it [the wasteful spending],” Trump told Fox. “And I’ve had great help with Elon Musk, who’s been terrific.”
The bromance between the two and the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) show no signs of flagging. The president said he’s frustrated by pushback from the judicial branch. A federal judge on Sunday issued a temporary halt to deportation of three immigrants in New Mexico to Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. A federal judge Saturday blocked Musk’s access to a Treasury Department payment system. In response, Musk called for the judge to be impeached.
Vice President Vance on Sunday objected to recent court orders pausing or blocking the president’s executive orders. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he wrote on social media, suggesting such court action is “illegal.” That view has been much debated over decades, referring to Supreme Court precedent.
Republicans in Congress have opted to keep any misgivings largely private, while Democrats, including Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), warned of a simmering constitutional crisis and floated a shutdown possibility.
Many Americans watching from the sidelines are reacting to rising egg and meat prices. None of Trump’s executive orders, memos or directives to date has specifically focused on food inflation or the price of eggs, up 14.5 percent in the past month.
Nevertheless, appearing to slash future Washington spending for science funding and international aid, and even the president’s directive last week to revive plastic over paper straws, may add up to an action-heavy executive narrative. Late on Sunday, he directed the Treasury Department to cease minting pennies, long a conservative target.
Trump begins the fourth week of his second term vowing to ramp up trade tariffs and shrink the Education Department. But when asked on Fox when ordinary consumers will see lower prices, a key promise he made during his campaign, Trump demurred while assailing “hundreds of billions” of wasted spending he did not detail on Sunday.
The president plans today to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum and announce “reciprocal” tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday, he told reporters accompanying him on Air Force Once to the Super Bowl.
“Very simply, if they charge us, we charge them,” he said, adding that the tariffs would go into effect “almost immediately” and impact “every country.”
The president’s confidence that tariffs harm trading partners rather than U.S. consumers continues to be questioned by economists and CEOs. Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico imposed a week ago, which he then suspended for a month, and 10 percent levies on China rattled financial markets and blew apart hopes among some U.S. companies for policy stability as the new administration gets underway.
Trump’s job approval is 53 percent (47 the percent disapproval), according to a CBS/YouGov poll. Americans say the new administration is doing what it promised. But a new left-leaning Navigator Research survey released today and conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 3 found Musk’s popularity ebbing since last month with registered voters in both parties.
▪ The Hill: How Musk is using tech to DOGE the government.
▪ The New York Times: Here are all the administration’s moves in its first 20 days.
- The U.S. relies on China for key medicines. They won’t be spared from tariffs.
- Here’s what you need to know about “debanking,” which has become a GOP talking point in recent weeks as they take aim at Biden-era regulators.
- The Hill’s three-part “Future of Energy” series begins today with reporting by Rachel Frazin about how falling costs drive the United States toward green energy — even as political tides shift.