President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he will have to wipe out Puerto Rico’s debt as the island rebuilds from the destruction caused by two hurricanes.
“We are going to work something out. We have to look at their whole debt structure,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday night. “You know they owe a lot of money to your friends on Wall Street. We’re gonna have to wipe that out. That’s gonna have to be — you know, you can say goodbye to that. I don’t know if it’s Goldman Sachs but whoever it is, you can wave good-bye to that.”
Puerto Rico has $74 billion in debt and has begun to default on its debt over the past couple years as the island has struggled with budget deficits. Puerto Rico’s financial situation leaves the island in a poor position to pay for a large recovery effort without help from the federal government.
Since Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, Trump has placed a lot of emphasis on the island’s debt. The President has complained that Puerto Rico is not willing to manage the recovery on its own and even remarked that the recovery effort there will throw off the federal budget.
Trump did not make similar comments about the burden of paying for recovery after hurricanes swept through Texas and Florida, which Democratic leaders have noted.
Watch the interview via Fox News:
Thought I would drop this here:
Ohio National Guard members head to Puerto Rico
The soldiers waited and waited and waited some more — since Sept. 23 to be exact — for the final orders that would send them off to help the hurricane-ravaged island of Puerto Rico.
To be honest, if Trump does indeed do this, I.e. get the Federal government to pay off Puerto Rico’s debt, that would be an excellent move and would take him far ahead of Obama in terms of handling PR’s debt.
That being said the problem lies with Republicans in Congress so I doubt Trump can get any traction here.
I agree with @addicted4444 that this would be an excellent move (and also that the Repugs in Congress will block all those brown people — although they might worry about them moving and resettling to the mainland and tipping some state blue…).
However, I suspect this is another big promise by Donnie Two Scoops for full PR effect, but which will never see the light of day in execution. Like his tax returns. Or Melania’s working papers documentation.
It sounds like he is going to Trump them on the debt, not pay it off.
It would be great if he actually lived up to those words. I’m not very optimistic he will.
Only if they realize how many votes Puerto Ricans will deliver to the Democrats when those citizens come to the mainland.