Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States can grow its way out of the $40 trillion national debt milestone reached Wednesday. In an interview with CNBC, Bessent said the figure itself was not meaningful without broader context and argued that misinformation had surrounded the deficit and deficit-to-GDP ratio. He identified tariff refunds required after the Supreme Court’s February 6-3 ruling against President Trump’s emergency tariffs as a temporary factor. Bessent said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would implement the same level of tariffs and that 2026 tariff income should be roughly equal to 2025, while section 301 tariffs could produce income at least as high as last year’s. The ruling generated about $100 billion in refunds to companies affected by the Trump administration’s April 2025 liberation day tariffs, including $600 million received by Amazon in its second financial quarter. More than $32.2 trillion of U.S. debt is held by the public, including state and local governments, businesses and foreign governments and businesses, while $7.8 trillion is owed to government trust funds and other entities within the government, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.