"President Trump would veto tax hikes," White House Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said at a Washington Post event

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Kudlow also said that he would personally oppose any tax increases in the context of a potential bipartisan deal to bring down the national debt.

"Absolutely not," he said, before adding that he could not speak for Trump on that matter.

Kudlow also ruled out other avenues of debt reduction. He said Trump would not make any changes to Social Security or Medicare, programs the president promised to preserve but that congressional Republicans say are key drivers of the debt. Cuts to defense spending are also off the table, Kudlow said.

That leaves only discretionary non-defense spending, the part of the federal budget that covers everything from health to education to foreign aid, but comprises about 14 percent of all government spending. Trump has proposed a 5 percent across-the-board cut to non-defense spending, a proposal he would formalize in what Kudlow said would be his "toughest budget yet."

Tax increases were not necessary to bring down rapidly expanding deficits and debt, Kudlow said, adding that sustained economic growth of 3 percent would be enough to combat higher debt.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that economic growth would drop below 3 percent after 2018 and average 1.7 percent annually from 2020 to 2028.

Administration officials have frequently argued that tax cuts in their signature 2017 tax law would "pay for themselves" by stimulating the economy.

The CBO projected that the tax law would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over a decade after taking into account the effects of economic growth.

In fiscal year 2018, the deficit rose 17 percent to $782 billion, and the White House projects it will surpass $1 trillion in the 2019 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.