Donald Trump insists he would be able to wipe out the United States’s debt in eight years.
{mosads}The Republican presidential front-runner said in a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post that he’d be able to get rid of the more than $19 trillion debt “over a period of eight years.”
Eliminating that amount of debt in eight years is highly improbable, according to most economists, The Washington Post reported. It could require using $2 trillion a year from the annual $4 trillion budget to pay off holders of the debt.
Trump insisted in the interview that “renegotiating all of our deals” would help pay down the debt by sparking economic growth.
“The power is trade. Our deals are so bad,” Trump said. “I would immediately start renegotiating our trade deals with Mexico, China, Japan and all of these countries that are just absolutely destroying us.”
The Washington Post also refuted that claim, reporting that many economists have said a trade war could cripple the U.S. economy.