President Donald Trumps economic team is pushing back forcefully against claims that his policies are worsening the nations finances, arguing instead that robust growth, tariff revenues, and a leaner federal workforce are driving down the deficit and restoring a measure of fiscal discipline in Washington.
According to Western Journal, Kevin Hassett, who heads the National Economic Council, told CNN that the administration inherited a budgetary mess and has since moved decisively to rein it in. We were in a fiscal situation that was completely out of control when [Trump] came into office, and now weve reduced the deficit by about $600 billion this year, because of high growth, tariff revenue, and reducing the federal workforce, Hassett said, underscoring the White Houses contention that conservative economic policies are beginning to pay off.
Hassett highlighted the administrations aggressive effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy, a long-standing priority for fiscal conservatives who see Washingtons size as both a financial and constitutional problem. Weve reduced federal workers by 360,000 people, and thats, like, almost $30 billion a year in savings. What President Trump is doing is taking a big step towards getting closer to a balanced budget, he noted, adding that That kind of fiscal responsibility is something that people have been asking governments of both parties to do for a long time.
The White House is also directly challenging media narratives that portray Trump-era policy as a driver of runaway debt. White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair blasted Politico over a story headlined US Debt Forecast to Hit $64T in a Decade as Trump Policies Widen Deficit, arguing that the outlet ignored the actual trajectory of the short-term numbers.
The January 2026 deficit is literally 35% lower than the January 2025 deficit. This headline is fake. Made Up, Blair wrote on social media, accusing the publication of substituting anti-Trump spin for sober fiscal analysis. His comments reflect a broader conservative frustration with legacy media outlets that routinely downplay or distort data that undercuts the progressive case for ever-expanding federal spending.
The administrations defenders point to the stark contrast between Trumps pre-pandemic fiscal record and the spending surge under President Joe Biden. During Trumps first term, in fiscal year 2019, the federal government spent $4.4 trillion, with a $984 billion deficit, while during Bidens last year in office, long after the COVID emergency had passed, Washington spent $6.8 trillion and ran a $1.8 trillion deficit.
That means Biden, backed by a Democratic-led Congress, effectively locked in an additional $2.4 trillion in annual expenditures and never brought spending back toward pre-pandemic norms. In fact, the 2024 level of spending was $200 billion higher than in 2020, when both parties had agreed to extraordinary, temporary outlays tied to the pandemic, underscoring how Democrats converted emergency measures into a new baseline for big government.
The size of the federal workforce tells a similar story about the competing visions of Washingtons role in American life. Under the previous administration, the federal payroll swelled by 6 percent, topping 3 million employees in the fall of 2024 for the first time since 1990, according to USA Facts, reflecting the progressive instinct to expand bureaucracy rather than streamline it.
By contrast, the Trump White House is touting a sharp reversal of that trend as a core achievement of his second term. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X, In President [Donald] Trumps second term, 615,000 private sector jobs have been added while federal employment has declined to its lowest level since 1966 and the lowest level in recorded history as a share of the total workforce, emphasizing a shift from government dependence to private-sector opportunity.
Federal data back up that claim of a shrinking bureaucracy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, In January, federal government employment continued to decline (-34,000) as some federal employees who accepted a deferred resignation offer in 2025 came off federal payrolls. Since reaching a peak in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 327,000, or 10.9 percent, leaving the total federal workforce just under 2.7 million.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has likewise pointed to improving deficit figures as evidence that Trumps mix of growth-oriented policy and spending restraint is beginning to repair the damage of the Biden years. In December, Bessent wrote on social media, Thanks to President [Donald] Trump, the health of the U.S. governments finances is improving, noting that The current calendar year-to-date deficit is $1.52 trillion, which compares to a deficit of $1.93 trillion for the comparable period last year under Biden, a 21% drop.
He further stressed that the fiscal picture looks better not because of accounting tricks, but because the economy itself is stronger. Not only is the deficit smaller under President Trump the economy is also bigger. The full 2025 calendar year budget deficit to GDP may total only 5.5%, substantially lower than the unsustainably high 6.8% in calendar year 2024 under Biden, Bessent added, framing the shift as a move away from the lefts unsustainable spending spree.
Revenue figures bolster the administrations argument that pro-growth, pro-tariff policies are helping to stabilize the books without resorting to broad-based tax hikes on working Americans. Total federal receipts for fiscal year 2025 reached $5.23 trillion, up from $4.9 trillion in 2024, an increase of more than $300 billion that officials attribute in part to higher tariff revenue and a growing economy, with the government reportedly collecting $264 billion in tariff-related revenues in 2025 versus $118 billion the year before.
Most of Trumps new tariffs did not take effect until April of last year, suggesting that 2026 could see even stronger inflows as the measures fully phase in and trading partners adjust. For conservatives who have long argued that Washington must live within its means, the combination of economic expansion, targeted tariffs, and real spending restraint offers a concrete path toward restoring fiscal sanity and rolling back the excesses of the Biden era, as Trumps team insists he is getting the nations fiscal house back in order.
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