President Trump said Thursday that he is willing to pursue a deal to eliminate the requirement that Congress vote to raise the debt ceiling.
“It could be discussed,” the president told reporters at the White House. “For many years people have been talking about getting rid of debt ceiling altogether and there are a lot of good reasons to do that … We even discussed it at the meeting we had yesterday.”
The debt ceiling is one of several issues Trump said he wants to work on with Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
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“The people of the U.S. want to see a coming together,” he said, a remark suggesting the deal-making Trump did on Wednesday with Democrats — which shocked both parties — might be a sign of things to come.
“I think we will have a different relationship than we’ve been watching over the last number of years,” he said. “I hope so. I think that’s a great thing for our country.”
Trump’s comments appeared to all but confirm reports that the president spoke with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) about getting rid of the federal debt limit.
The discussion came during a Wednesday meeting with Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), according to The Washington Post.
At that meeting, Trump brokered a deal with Democrats to fund the government for three months, raise the debt ceiling through Dec. 8 and aid communities hit by Hurricane Harvey.
Ryan earlier on Thursday said he would oppose getting rid of the debt ceiling, and the move would likely anger conservatives worried about government spending. Many would also see the debt limit as falling under the constitutional powers of Congress and not the president.
“I won’t get into a private conversation that we had,” Ryan said at his weekly news conference. “But I think there is a legitimate role for the power of the purse and Article 1 powers, and that’s something we need to defend here in Congress.”
Conservative Republicans have used past debt-limit votes to try to extract concessions on spending and other fiscal reforms.
But Trump called the debt limit “a sacred trust” and said that “as long as it’s there it will never be violated.”
“We have a great respect for the sanctity of the debt ceiling. Chuck does and Nancy does. We all do. That will never be a problem. The debt ceiling will never be a problem,” he said.
This story was updated at 2:25 p.m.