Last month, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, J.D. Vance said he worried about the U.S. government bond market in the early stages of a Trump presidency. Because of Biden-Harris spending, the U.S. is adding about $2 trillion to the national debt every year, he said, and “The only thing that makes that serviceable is that interest rates are still pretty low.” If interest rates go much higher, say to 8 percent, “that can become a huge spiral that could take down the finances of this country.”

Vance said that international investors and foreign countries — beneficiaries of globalization — could try to take down the new Trump administration by selling U.S. government bonds, which would cause interest rates to rise sharply.