Elon's obviously got a point regarding the total debt.

Yearly interest payments on the debt is going to kill the USA. In fact it is killing them already, with the interest payments already being higher than the defense budget...

But on the other hand, what options does President Trump have? To turn things around would also mean letting go of the world dominance of the USA. Everyone would hate Trump if he does what needs to be done to fix this. In fact, I think there simply is no other outcome but a lot of pain (leaving in the middle whether that will be with or without the existing world dominance).

Pain is inevitable, the question is whether Trump and the next presidents go for slow bleeding or instant, massive pain with hopes of it getting better after a while. Trump, and nobody else, wants to be the one who destroyed the USA's world dominance, wealth of its people and the $USD as the world reserve currency, even though that's what's needed?

So, I also understand Trump doesn't want to do that and rather goes for the safe option: keep going as they're going and try to solve the problem on the go.

Best option they have might be to simply hope for other potential world powers to have worse problems. Like China, the number 1 contender, having a massive real estate crisis now.