Trump promised tariffs on Day One. None have been announced so far.

The Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, is a task force Trump has appointed, headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. It has some lofty resolutions for its stated goal of cutting wasteful government spending.

The options on the table: cut spending, default on the national debt, raise the ceiling — or eliminate it altogether.

But this time may be different. One theory is that weaker data allowed companies to prepare and soften the economic landing.

We do the numbers on how much each candidate’s plans will add to the national debt and impact voters.

Nobody wants to take the blame in an election year.

If you add up government debt around the world, it totals $91 trillion. More than a third of it comes from one country: The U.S.

The program pays $1.5 trillion a year and aids 70 million Americans. But it has its own budget and by law can’t create debt or widen deficits.

At the annual meeting of right-wing thinkers, economic issues such as tariffs and government spending are expected to be discussed.

Our U.S. debt is bigger than our economic output. Consequences include ballooning interest payments and potential trust issues.