Former Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina is teasing a possible 2020 GOP primary challenge against President Trump, saying he is fed up with the way in which Washington has “seemingly forgotten that the debt, deficit and spending really do matter.”

Mr. Sanford, who served as governor before spending a term in the House, said in an online video that future generations are going to be on the hook for the irresponsible behavior of elected leaders and that his friends are pushing him to run for president to shine a bright light on the issue.

“Deficits are nothing more than deferred taxes handed to the next generation,” he said. “These are big questions to be answered as we sleepwalk our way toward the most predictable financial crisis in the history of man.”

Mr. Sanford lost his primary race last fall against a Trump-backed candidate who went on to lose the general election race as part of the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House.

In the video, Mr. Sanford said Mr. Trump and lawmakers have ignored the sea of red ink, citing Mr. Trump’s Fourth of July “military parade” as an attempt to pull the public’s attention away from the problem.

“Debt accumulating as ours is now kills dreams, it kills opportunity, it has killed civilizations,” he said.

Mr. Sanford said the record he compiled during two stints in Congress — serving from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2013 to 2019 — and as governor from 2003 to 2011 — shows that he has been dedicated to these issues.

He said his well-documented personal stumbles, which included a high-profile extramarital affair as governor, have given him a renewed sense of how important truth is.

“So, I am compelled to say the obvious: We are living on borrowed time,” Mr. Sanford said. “Our present course can’t end well for us or those that we love, and so I’m going to stand and say we need a change in spending, debt and deficits and we need it now.”

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