During an interview on Fox Business Donald Trump quoted newspapers who had claimed that “Trump wants to go and start negotiating with creditors.” His answer: “You don’t have to think about this, but we print the money.”
He repeated the same sentiment on CNN:
“People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt — these people are crazy. This is the United States government. First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK? So there’s never a default.”
News outlets such as the New York Times annoyed Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, when they suggested that Trump wanted to reduce the national debt by convincing creditors to accept less than full payment. The report said that such statements are a totally new frontier for modern political candidates.
Those remarks were based on an interview Trump gage to CNBC last week. He was asked whether the US should pay its debt in full, or maybe negotiate a partial repayment. Trump’s answer was:
“I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.”
Trump has described himself as the “king of debt” but added that debt is “tricky” and can be “dangerous.”
“I know how to deal with debt very well — I love debt — but, you know, debt is tricky, and it’s dangerous, and you have to be careful, and you have to know what you’re doing,” he said.