Pompeo takes swipe at Trump over adding nearly $8 trillion to US debt

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who’s weighing a 2024 presidential run, took a swipe at his former boss on Friday over adding nearly $8 trillion to the national debt.

“I stare today at $31 trillion in debt and tell my son, ‘Make sure you work hard, because Social Security may just not be there for you,’” Pompeo said during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

“Every recent administration, Republican and Democrat alike, added trillions in dollars to our debt. That is deeply unconservative. [The] Trump administration, the administration I served, added $8 trillion in new debt. This is indecent and can’t continue. Earning back that trust will be hard work, it won’t just be a campaign speech,” he continued. 

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. saw a nearly $7.8 trillion rise in the country’s national debt, according to The Washington Post.  

Pompeo’s remarks come after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in January told Congress that the U.S. government would start using “extraordinary measures” as the national debt has approached over $31.4 trillion. 

The nonpartisan think tank Bipartisan Policy Center and Yellen have both said that Congress needs to address the national debt limit, or the U.S. could default on its debt as early as June. However, no deal has been reached by Congress.

Pompeo has not been shy at taking implied jabs at the former president, with several of those coming shortly after the November midterms after many of Trump’s endorsees lost their races.