A viral X post on July 23 pointed out one way that the Trump administration is looking to reduce the national debt
On the Pay.gov website, operated by the Treasury Department, Americans can now give a “gift” to the public debt via Venmo or PayPal
The national debt currently sits around $36.7 trillion, as is expected to grow substantially in the coming years due to Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” budget bill
As President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” is poised to add trillions to the U.S. national debt, the Treasury Department is offering ways for citizens to help pay it down themselves.
On July 23, NPR reporter Jack Corbett pointed out, via X, that Venmo and PayPal options had been added to the Pay.gov website.
According to the “About Us” tab on their website, Pay.gov — which is an official program of the Treasury — is “a website where you can fill out a government form or pay a bill to a United States government agency. Making a payment on Pay.gov is like purchasing something online, and using Pay.gov is free.”
On the site, there is a page titled “Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt,” where U.S. citizens can make a contribution to reduce the national debt via their bank account, debit or credit card, or, newly, a Venmo or PayPal account.
The Treasury has run this program for years and, according to The New Republic, U.S. citizens have only donated around $67.3 million since 1996.
As of Friday, July 25, the national debt sits at around $36.7 trillion, or around $107,493 for every American, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
That number is set to skyrocket in the coming years, thanks to the recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Earlier this week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published a report estimating that Trump’s budgetary behemoth will add $3.4 trillion to the U.S. national debt over the next decade.
The bill includes hundreds of billions of dollars in new military spending and resources to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda. While it pays for some of that with cuts to Medicaid, SNAP benefits and clean energy funding, the CBO analysis stated that the net spending cuts of $1.1 trillion pale in comparison to the $4.5 trillion in decreased revenue due to short-term tax cuts.
Despite the numbers, a press release from the Trump White House on June 30 boasted that the “Big, Beautiful Bill” will do the opposite.
“President Trump’s plan doesn’t just grow the economy, it actually reduces the debt burden on future generations — something the D.C. establishment hasn’t done in decades,” read the release. “While Joe Biden supersized the national debt, President Trump is supersizing hardworking Americans’ pay checks and restoring fiscal sanity, helping solve our debt crisis for the long run.”
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