Trump thinks U.S. can renegotiate debt, make creditors take less. And that rainbow unicorns are real

Rss@dailykos.com (ian Reifowitz) · Saturday, May 07, 2016, 11:35 am

Here’s the exchange between Trump and Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC Thursday:

"I am the king of debt. I do love debt. I love debt. I love playing with it." Trump said.

"Do you believe that we, in terms of the United States need to pay a hundred cents on the dollar, or do you think that there's actually ways that we can renegotiate that debt?" CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him.

"Yeah, I think -- look, I have borrowed, knowing that you can pay back with discounts. And I have done very well," Trump said. "I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal, and if the economy was good, it was good, so, therefore, you can't lose.”

Binyamin Applebaum covers the economy for the New York Times. Of Trump’s idea that the U.S. could simply renegotiate our country’s national debt, Applebaum noted: “Such remarks by a major presidential candidate have no modern precedent.” That’s a polite way of saying: holy fucking shit.

Applebaum got a response from Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP: “No one on the other side would pick up the phone if the secretary of the U.S. Treasury tried to make that call. Why should they? They have a contract [requiring full payment].” Applebaum offered a primer that further explained the point in such a gentle way that one can almost see him patting the Donald on his hair.

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