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Nothing Donald Trump says or does is ever completely surprising, given his refusal to acknowledge any standards of consistency, predictability, or accountability to objective reality. But sometimes his timing is really odd, and that’s the case with his decision to repeat a previously rejected demand that Congress entirely abolish the statutory national-debt limit.
When Trump originally made this demand back in December, it was like a hand grenade tossed into a room full of gunpowder. Congress (with the Democrats still controlling the Senate and the White House) was in the middle of a bipartisan struggle to prevent a government shutdown with a stopgap spending bill that many conservatives disliked. Asking the fiscal hawks of the House Freedom Caucus to accept a debt-limit abolition (typically something only the most liberal Democrats supported) was very much a bridge too far, and for once, Trump didn’t get his way, as GOP congressional leaders convinced him dealing with the debt limit could be done in conjunction with a budget-reconciliation bill (which became, of course, the Big Beautiful Bill).
The House-passed BBB has a provision raising the debt limit by $4 trillion, enough to accommodate the additional debt the bill itself would create (CBO has estimated it will add $2.4 trillion to the national credit card). But that just rubbed salt into the wounds of fiscal hawks who want more domestic budget cuts and a reconciliation bill without new deficit spending. Now is probably the worst time for Trump to push his luck with a proposal to replace that horrendous-to-conservatives debt-limit increase with no limit at all. And it probably won’t help that the MAGA president expressed this wish via a gesture of solidarity with Elizabeth Warren on Truth Social:
I am very pleased to announce that, after all of these years, I agree with Senator Elizabeth Warren on SOMETHING. The Debt Limit should be entirely scrapped to prevent an Economic catastrophe. It is too devastating to be put in the hands of political people that may want to use it despite the horrendous effect it could have on our Country and, indirectly, even the World. As to Senator Warren’s second statement on the $4 Trillion Dollars, I like that also, but it would have to be done over a period of time, as short as possible. Let’s get together, Republican and Democrat, and DO THIS!
Trump embedded Warren’s tweet last week reminding everyone that both she and the president have been on common ground before (though she ended it with a bit of a taunt):
.@realDonaldTrump and I agree: the debt limit should be scrapped to prevent an economic catastrophe.
Let’s pass a bipartisan bill and get rid of it forever.
But jacking up the debt limit by $4 trillion to fund more tax breaks for billionaires is an outrage. pic.twitter.com/tMRdSsY5St
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) May 30, 2025
Not only did Trump ignore this last line, he didn’t even address Warren as Pocahontas!
Warren’s desire to abolish the debt limit puts her very much in the minority of Democrats at present. Few Democrats want to encourage Trump to make even more outlandish proposals for tax-cut goodies to enrich his friends and buy votes or for massive defense and border-security spending. So Trump is complicating the work of Mike Johnson and John Thune in getting the BBB with a debt-limit increase past the finish line.
Fortunately for Republicans, soon after Trump’s startling Truth Social post expressing solidarity with Warren, the dark lord of his administration, OMB director Russell Vought, offered a clarification, as Politico reported:
Vought said Wednesday evening that the administration’s stance on raising the debt limit by a party-line vote in the GOP megabill has not shifted. The total elimination of the debt limit is not possible on a budget reconciliation bill, only an increase, and Vought stressed that keeping the $4 trillion debt ceiling hike in the bill is the path forward.
“He thinks it’s very important that the debt extension be a part of this bill,” said Vought. “I think he’s also just trying to articulate the fact that, from a philosophical standpoint, there should be support on a bipartisan basis to reflect on the fact that this tool provides way too much leverage for an opposing party or minority to hold hostage an administration that is trying to do big things for the American people.”
The breaking news here is that the 47th president approaches anything at all from a “philosophical standpoint,” but Vought does appear to have defused this particular bombshell.
