According to Atlantic columnist David Frum, Trump's 2024 pledge to eliminate the national debt within one term rested on fantasies: closing a $1.8 trillion deficit with tariffs would have required a 55 per cent tariff on $3.3 trillion of imports with no change in consumer buying. Frum says DOGE's cuts to IRS auditing staff, which the Yale Budget Lab estimates could cost more than $860 billion in revenue over the next decade, worsened the deficit. Debt rose another $10 trillion, with tax cuts reducing revenue by $4.5 trillion, and Frum writes that the Supreme Court confirmed in February 2026 that tariffs are taxes Congress must approve. He concludes Trump has wrecked the country's finances worse than any government in U.S. history.
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