Trump Teases Plan to ‘Cut Waste, Stop Inflation, and Crush the Deep State’

President-elect Donald Trump said he would restore the executive branch impoundment authority to “cut waste, stop inflation, and crush the Deep State” during his second term.

In a video posted by his presidential campaign in June 2023, Trump explained that, if elected, he would “use the president’s long-recognized Impoundment Power to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings.”

Trump said the slashing of federal spending via the impoundment authority would “quickly stop inflation and slash the deficit.”

While the earliest example of a U.S. president using impoundment was in 1803 by President Thomas Jefferson, Congress passed the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to establish congressional control of spending.

Trump said he would challenge the 1974 law in court or urge Congress to repeal the law.

“This disaster of a law is clearly unconstitutional—a blatant violation of the separation of powers,” Trump said.

“When I return to the White House, I will do everything I can to challenge the Impoundment Control Act in court, and if necessary, get Congress to overturn it. We will overturn it,” Trump added.

To initiate the process of identifying unnecessary funds in the federal government’s budget, Trump said he would, on his first day in office, “order every federal agency to begin identifying large chunks of their budgets that can be saved through efficiencies and waste reduction using Impoundment.”

Trump said cutting out unnecessary funds in the budget would not only reduce spending and lower inflation but also “obliterate the Deep State, Drain the Swamp, and starve the Warmongers.”

“With Impoundment, we can simply choke off the money. This policy is anti-inflation, anti-Swamp, anti-globalist—and it’s pro-growth, pro-taxpayer, pro-American, and pro-freedom. I alone can get that done. I will get it done and Make America Great Again,” Trump explained.

Funds Trump said he “will not lay a finger on” through impoundment include national defense spending, Medicare, or Social Security.

According to data provided by the Treasury Department, the federal government spent just over $6.75 trillion in Fiscal Year 2024.

Of the $6.75 trillion spent, $1.46 trillion (22 percent) is being spent on Social Security; $912 billion (14 percent) is spent on Health; $882 billion is going towards Net Interest (13 percent); and $874 billion is being spent both on Medicare and National Defense (13 percent each).

Trump said the money saved by impoundment during his administration would result in tax reductions for Americans.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Donald Trump” by Donald Trump.