Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has expressed cautious optimism that the United States budget deficit may have reached its high point under President Donald Trump.
Bessent made the remarks during an exclusive interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen on Thursday, a day after his department’s extraordinary debt buyback announcement.
“We are going to be laser focused,” Bessent told Eisen, signalling the administration’s intent to address the country’s deteriorating fiscal position.
The monthly U.S. budget deficit surged to more than $432 billion in July, its highest level in more than half a decade, according to the Treasury Department.
That monthly report also showed the fiscal year-to-date deficit gap had climbed to almost $1.8 trillion, surpassing where it stood at the same point a year earlier.
Compounding those concerns, the Treasury Department announced this week that the total U.S. government debt pile has hit a new record, rising above $40 trillion for the first time.
The total debt figure has more than doubled over the last decade, deepening concerns among economists and investors about the long-term financial health of the United States.
Bessent said that he, Trump, and Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, are among federal government leaders actively working on fiscal consolidation measures.
Several hundreds of billions of dollars could be saved through those consolidation efforts, Bessent said, though he did not outline specific policy mechanisms in the interview.
The White House has pointed to its sweeping tariff programme as a significant source of new revenue, arguing that levies on trading partners could help reduce the national debt over time.
However, those tariffs have faced serious legal obstacles, most notably the Supreme Court’s decision to strike many of them down, limiting their revenue-generating potential.
Bessent said he expected tariff revenue for this year to come in at roughly the same level as 2025’s, after levies were re-implemented despite the ongoing legal challenges.
He added that those revenues should not need to be refunded to companies this time around, providing a degree of certainty about their contribution to the public finances.
On the headline debt figure, Bessent sought to temper alarm, saying: “There’s nothing magic about the 40-trillion number. We can grow our way out of that.”