Donald Trump has gone from saying he would eliminate the U.S. national debt “over a period of eight years” with the help of renegotiated trade deals to saying he would pay off a percentage of it in a decade with the help of debt refinancing and take a “not so … aggressive” approach.
Trump explained the change of direction, which comes in the span of just a few weeks, to Fortune magazine. In the interview released Thursday, Trump said he never vowed to rid the country of its debt in 10 years; he told the Washington Post in a sit-down published April 2 that it would take him eight.
Both outlets published full transcripts of their interviews. The relevant portions are juxtaposed below for comparison’s sake.
(From The Washington Post, April 2) TRUMP: We’re a debtor nation. We’ve got to get rid of — I talked about bubble. We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt. BOB WOODWARD: How long would that take? TRUMP: I think I could do it fairly quickly, because of the fact the numbers . . . . WOODWARD: What’s fairly quickly? TRUMP: Well, I would say over a period of eight years. And I’ll tell you why. WOODWARD: Would you ever be open to tax increases as part of that, to solve the problem? TRUMP: I don’t think I’ll need to. The power is trade. Our deals are so bad. (From Fortune, April 21) FORTUNE: You’ve said you plan to pay off the country’s debt in 10 years. How’s that possible? TRUMP: No, I didn’t say 10 years. First of all, with low interest rates, you can think in terms of refinancings, and get it down. I believe you can do certain things to pay off the debt more quickly. The most important thing is to make sure the economy stays strong. You can do it in smaller chunks. You can do it in larger chunks. And you can do it in refinancings. FORTUNE: How much of the debt could you pay off in 10 years? TRUMP: You could pay off a percentage of it. FORTUNE: What percentage? TRUMP: It depends on how aggressive you want to be. I’d rather not be so aggressive. Don’t forget: We have to rebuild the infrastructure of our country. We have to rebuild our military, which is being decimated by bad decisions. We have to do a lot of things. We have to reduce our debt, and the best thing we have going now is that interest rates are so low that lots of good things can be done that aren’t being done, amazingly.
