Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a key figure in Donald Trump’s administration, asserted during a television interview on Friday that the former president’s team was making strides in addressing the nation’s debt before being derailed by the pandemic.
“The deficit is out of control. The debt is too high. We had a debt, pre-COVID, that we were beginning to pay down,” Mnuchin stated on CNBC.
However, some observers noted that the deficit had been rising even before the pandemic, attributing part of the increase to Trump’s tax cuts.
“… When he says that we were on track to pay off the debt, look at what happened to the deficit even before COVID. Because of his tax cut, the deficit was going up, up, up, and then, of course, COVID hit,” remarked Steven Rattner, a Wall Street financier and analyst for the network, who also led former President Barack Obama’s Auto Task Force, in a recent segment on MSNBC.
Trump’s tenure as president saw a notable surge in the national debt, surpassing that of his predecessors. However, it is worth noting that President Joe Biden is currently projected to surpass Trump’s debt accumulation by the end of his term.
