Venture Capitalist Tells Megyn Kelly Why Trump Admin Faces Uphill Battle Tackling US Debt
Venture capitalist and “All-In” podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya told SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly on her show Friday that the Trump administration is going to have an uphill battle tackling the U.S. debt due to prior…
Venture capitalist and “All-In” podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya told SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly on her show Friday that the Trump administration is going to have an uphill battle tackling the U.S. debt due to prior actions by the Biden administration.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent became President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary on Jan. 27 after passing through the Senate with bipartisan support and saying he would help the president bring the “new economic golden age.” On “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Kelly brought up Democrats’ pushback against Trump’s plan to clear government waste. She said some people are already speculating that the U.S. budget will remain the same despite the cuts. Trump is making cuts with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency.
“We’re in a really difficult spot. So I think it’s important for your listeners and viewers to know this. The last couple of years, the Biden administration and specifically Biden and Yellen did one thing that I hope no government afterwards ever does, which is they were effectively speculating on rates,” Palihapitiya said. “What they did was, you know, the Treasury’s job is to finance the government, right?”
“Their job is to go into the bond market, sell bonds, use that money and redirect it to HHS, to Social Security, to defense, wherever. They financed it with all of this short-term paper,” Palihapitiya added. “Part of it was they believed that inflation would be in check and interest rates in the future would fall. So whatever happened, we would be able to go back into the markets and borrow later for cheaper. It turned out that was an enormously incorrect assumption, and they should not have made that decision.”
Former President Joe Biden and his White House staff said the U.S. economy fared well during his four years, yet inflation hit a peak of 9.1% in June 2022, impacting businesses and consumers. While the Federal Reserve’s target is 2%, the central bank