Anthony Scaramucci has a message for anyone who thinks the math on America's debt is survivable: do the math.

The SkyBridge Capital founder and former White House communications director took to X on Friday with a simple arithmetic exercise. A 6% interest rate on the $40 trillion national debt works out to $2.4 trillion in annual interest payments. That's not a projection buried in a spreadsheet somewhere. That's a number bigger than the entire Social Security disbursement.

"This isn't apocalyptic. It's just math," he wrote.

To be fair, Scaramucci clarified on The Don Lemon Show that he isn't suggesting every outstanding federal obligation would suddenly reprice at 6%. That's not how any of this works. But his broader point stands: as borrowing costs climb, the debt gets harder and harder to carry, and at some point the arithmetic stops being a thought experiment and starts being a budget crisis.

Clinton-Era Tax Rates Could Cut Deficits

Scaramucci's proposed fix is not exactly a crowd-pleaser in either party's primary. He argues that returning to the tax rates of former President Bill Clinton's administration, combined with additional adjustments, could shave $10 trillion to $12 trillion off projected deficit spending over the next decade.

"But there's no Republican that's going to do that. Donald Trump's not going to do that," he said.

He didn't stop there. "When Donald Trump leaves office, he'll be responsible for 42% of all the national debt."

Scaramucci Has Warned About Rising US Debt Before

This isn't a one-off complaint. Last month, Scaramucci warned that U.S. national debt could reach $56 trillion by 2036, with annual interest costs projected to hit $2.1 trillion. He blamed both parties for decades of borrowing, writing, "For twenty-five years, both parties have sold us something for nothing, and the national debt is the receipt."

That line is worth sitting with. It's a neat way of saying that the bill for two and a half decades of deficit-financed promises is now coming due, and nobody who signed the checks wants to be the one holding the receipt.

Rising US Debt Concerns

Scaramucci is far from alone in sounding the alarm. Economist Michael A. Peterson warned that the $40 trillion national debt was "stealing from our next generation," citing rising deficits and interest costs.

In August, Peter Schiff warned that the $39.835 trillion debt could complicate the Federal Reserve's efforts to control inflation and manage borrowing costs. He argued that rising debt was pushing the Fed to create inflation and asked investors, "Got gold?"

The U.S. national debt surpassed $40 trillion in August 2026, prompting market strategist Ryan Detrick to compare it to a stack of $1,000 bills 72 times the height of Mount Everest. He urged investors to consider rising household wealth alongside the growing debt.

So where does that leave things? Scaramucci's answer is blunt: the math is the math, and someone eventually has to pay for it. Whether that someone is taxpayers, bondholders, or the next generation is the part still up for debate.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by MarketDash editors.