Once the new Trump Administration takes office, one area that bears watching is what happens with the budget, specifically whether Donald Trump implements any significant spending cuts.
Government spending skyrocketed at the end of Trump’s term and at the beginning of Joseph Biden’s due to efforts to fight the COVID pandemic.
But with that crisis now long in the rearview mirror, how much of a priority will cutting spending be for Trump?
What Can DOGE Do?
On the one hand, the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has been established, with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy at the helm.
While it’s not clear exactly how much power DOGE will have, Musk will certainly have the ability, on X, to keep DOGE’s work at the forefront.
On the other, while Trump made noises in his first term about wanting to retire the national debt by the end of his time in office, the MAGA project has never really emphasized cutting spending over other priorities.
According to an analysis last summer, Trump actually ran up the national debt twice as much as Biden, although, in fairness, COVID had a lot to do with that.
When Trump ran in the Republican primaries last year, his opponents tried to make hay out of that addition to the debt.
Still, like most other things, this did little to prevent Trump’s march to his third straight Republican presidential nomination.
Donald Trump vs. the Budget Hawks
Meanwhile, most analyses these days look at the dynamic not as Trump trying to force spending cuts but rather as the incoming administration battling with fiscal hawks in Congress, who may threaten to withhold support for more ambitious parts of Trump’s agenda.
There were indications about how that would go this week, such as when Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, appeared for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Public Affairs.
The Hill described Vought, who served in the same position for part of Trump’s first term, as “one of Washington’s staunchest advocates for cutting spending.”
It added that Vought, who formerly served in Congress, is “viewed as more ideologically aligned with the fiscal conservatives who have roiled House debates over spending than with GOP leaders who have agreed to bipartisan deals.”
Vought had also advocated for pushing the omnibus spending bill into the new Congress rather than passing it last December, with Biden still in office.
Barron’s has positioned the battle as “Trump vs. the Budget Hawks,” with Trump likely viewing tax cuts and immigration reform as top priorities rather than cutting spending.
However, another report this week by Politico listed possible spending cuts.
A Wishlist of Cuts
House Budget Chair Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) has put forward a “menu” of over $5 trillion in cuts over ten years, to everything from “Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the country’s largest anti-hunger program.”
However, per Politico, these are positioned not as spending cuts for the sake of spending cuts but rather as offsets, meant to “bankroll President-elect Donald Trump’s top priorities this year, including tax cuts and border security.”

By Gage Skidmore: Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the “Rally to Protect Our Elections” hosted by Turning Point Action at Arizona Federal Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s seen as highly unlikely that all of the cuts will happen since the list is “highly ambitious and unlikely to all become law given narrow margins for Republicans in the House and Senate.”
It might sound easy for the GOP to merely undo all the spending passed during the Biden presidency, but that’s not so simple. According to Politico, 18 House Republicans have warned Speaker Mike Johnson about “prematurely repealing some of the IRA’s energy tax credits, which are funding multiple manufacturing projects in GOP districts.”
Calling for spending cuts is very easy. But making them happen in a way that can get through a narrow Congressional majority is much more complicated.
Author Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
