“Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s aides and advisers have tried to convince him of the importance of tackling the national debt [but] sources close to the President say he has repeatedly shrugged it off, implying that he doesn’t have to worry about the money owed to America’s creditors—currently about $21 trillion—because he won’t be around to shoulder the blame when it becomes even more untenable.”

“The friction came to a head in early 2017 when senior officials offered Trump charts and graphics laying out the numbers and showing a “hockey stick” spike in the national debt in the not-too-distant future. In response, according to a source who was in the room during discussions on the debt, Trump bluntly said, “Yeah, but I won’t be here” noting that the data suggested the debt would reach a critical mass only after his possible second term in office. For those who have worked with Trump, it was par for the course. Several people close to the president, both within and outside his administration, confirmed that the national debt has never bothered him in a truly meaningful way, despite his public lip service. “I never once heard him talk about the debt,” one former senior White House official attested…

Recent reports have suggested that Trump is determined, at least rhetorically, to address the issue, and Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for the president, noted that the president and his team have proposed policies to achieve some deficit reduction, “including in his first budget that actually would’ve balanced in 10 years, a historic, common-sense rescissions proposal” but Gidley also passed the buck to the legislative branch. “While the President has and will continue to do everything in his power to rein in Washington’s out of control spending,” he said, “the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse and it’s time for them to work with this President to reduce the debt.”

Those close to Trump say that one reason the issue of debt reduction has never been an animating one for him is because he is convinced that it can be solved by focusing on economic growth rather than through tax hikes or sharp spending reductions…saying: ‘We’re gonna grow our way out of it.’”

… A belief that robust economic growth would solve all problems was the way Trump—starting in 2016—justified the cost of his ambitious proposals to slash taxes, pursue big infrastructure projects, and simply avoid massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Since then, the President has continued to show indifference over the national debt…and, for the most part, the Republican Party has gone along. Over the first two years of the Trump administration, congressional Republicans have slashed taxes dramatically while increasing defense and discretionary spending, all without giving much indication that they’re going to take a stab at dramatically gutting certain popular entitlements.

The results have not been what Trump…[hoped for, however]…

• Economic growth increased over the past year—including a robust 4.1% in the second quarter of 2018—but the federal deficit has ballooned as well, in part because the government has taken in less revenue because of the tax cuts.
• Current forecasts are not too rosy about the future economy.

Recently, both Trump and some Republican lawmakers have hinted at regret over their approach…Trump has instructed his cabinet to devise plans to trim their budgets in an effort to reduce the federal deficit but Trump also set strict limits on what sorts of programs could be cut—and quickly proceeded to propose increased spending in other areas of the federal government.

According to a former senior White House official “He understands the messaging of it but he isn’t a doctrinaire conservative who deeply cares about the national debt, especially not on his watch. It’s not a top priority for him. He understands the political nature of the debt but it’s clearly not, frankly, something he sees as crucial to his legacy. It’s not like it’s going to haunt him.””