President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he would support a movement to get rid of the debt ceiling, telling NBC News it is the "smartest thing" Congress could do.
Trump's remarks come a day after he and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance released a joint statement demanding Congress increase the debt ceiling while slamming the first iteration of the stopgap funding bill supported — and later scrapped — by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Trump told NBC News on Thursday morning he would "entirely" support abolishing the debt ceiling altogether.
"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 said, adding, "It doesn't mean anything, except psychologically."
The debt ceiling, the maximum amount of money the U.S. government can borrow to pay its bills and legal obligations, was last raised in June 2023 by Congress, which suspended it through Jan. 1, 2025.
In his and Vance's Wednesday missive, Trump demanded that raising the debt ceiling be included in the revised Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded.
"Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch. If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let's have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want," Trump and Vance said in the statement.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., the ranking member of the Budget Committee, told NBC News that "the only way" House Democrats should "vote to raise the debt ceiling under Trump is if we have a permanent elimination" of it or a bill to nullify it.
Trump scolded Johnson for falling for the "Democrat trap" of advancing a CR that was bloated with new spending, telling NBC News "we'll see" if he still has confidence in Johnson.
However, Trump told Fox News on Thursday that Johnson will "easily remain speaker," provided he "acts decisively and tough and gets rid of all the traps being set by Democrats."
The deadline to pass a clean CR to avoid a partial shutdown of the government is Saturday at 12:01 a.m. ET.
Vance met with Johnson for about an hour Wednesday night to discuss the CR and believes Republicans will be able to "solve problems here," Fox News reported.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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