Trump says US may have less debt than thought because of fraud

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump has said his administration was examining US Treasury debt payments for possible fraud and suggested that the country’s US$36 trillion (S$49 trillion) debt load might not be that high.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Feb 9, Mr Trump said administration officials who have been combing through payment records in an effort to identify wasteful spending have turned their attention to the debt payments that play a central role in the global financial system.

“We’re even looking at Treasuries,” Mr Trump said. “There could be a problem – you’ve been reading about that, with Treasuries, and that could be an interesting problem.”

He added: “It could be that a lot of those things don’t count. In other words, that some of that stuff that we’re finding is very fraudulent, therefore maybe we have less debt than we thought.”

It was not clear whether Mr Trump was referring to debt service or other government payments made by the Treasury Department.

The US currently has US$36.2 trillion public debt outstanding, according to the US Treasury, equal to more than 120 per cent of gross domestic product.

Because the US government spends more money than it collects, Mr Trump and his fellow Republicans who control Congress will have to authorise more borrowing some time this year to avert a debt default that could have catastrophic consequences.

Mr Trump’s proposed tax cuts would add trillions of dollars more in debt, independent budget watchdogs say.

Mr Trump has tasked billionaire Elon Musk with an ambitious overhaul of the federal government, sparking street protests in Washington and accusations that the Trump administration is breaking the law.

Mr Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) has disrupted operations at several federal agencies, raising privacy and security concerns while accessing sensitive payroll and spending records.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Mr Musk’s team on Feb 8 from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments, citing a risk that sensitive information could be improperly disclosed.

After the ruling, Mr Musk said a do-not-pay list of entities that should not receive government payments should be updated at least weekly, if not daily.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a Trump appointee, said last week that Mr Musk’s team had “read only” access to the payment system, which would not give them power to make changes.

Mr Trump’s attempt to freeze wide swathes of domestic aid has been blocked in court, but project managers across the country say billions of dollars nevertheless have been withheld for clean energy and transportation projects.

Some health clinics say they have been forced to lay off staff and shutter facilities because they have not been able to access federal funding. REUTERS