Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday night that Republicans should force the federal government to default if Democrats won’t make spending-cut concessions as a condition of raising the debt ceiling.
Trump made the comment in a town hall in Manchester, N.H., with Republicans and undecided voters, hosted by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. The prime-time event quickly spiraled out of control, with Trump repeating lies about the 2020 election and mocking E. Jean Carroll, who on Tuesday won a defamation suit against him and $5 million in damages. In that case, jurors also found Trump sexually abused Carroll nearly 30 years ago, an allegation that Trump again denied Wednesday.
At one contentious moment, Trump called Collins “a nasty person,” and later refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election if he were the Republican nominee and again lost.
On the subject of the looming debt ceiling, a voter identified as undecided — CNN had said its assembled audience comprised New Hampshire Republicans and undecided voters — asked Trump for his thoughts on the debt situation and how the country could move forward.
“We have to start paying off debt … I say to the Republicans out there — congressman, senators — if [Democrats] don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default, and I don’t believe they’re going to do a default because I think the Democrats will absolutely cave will absolutely cave because you don’t want to have that happen, but it’s better than what we’re doing right now because we’re spending money like drunken sailors,” Trump said.
Also see: Debt-ceiling standoff: Here’s what could go into a bipartisan deal
Pressed by Collins on the issue of defaulting, Trump said: “Well, you might as well do it now because you’ll do it later because we have to save this country. Our country is dying. Our country is being destroyed by stupid people, by very stupid people.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said a default on U.S. debt could cause “financial chaos” and have an “adverse impact” on the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, and said an unprecedented default could happen as soon as June 1 if Congress doesn’t raise the borrowing limit.
President Joe Biden, who in 2020 defeated the then-incumbent Trump by more than 7 million votes and a 306-232 margin in the Electoral College, has insisted that a “clean” debt-ceiling bill be placed upon his desk, as the debt limit — unlike the annual budget-writing process — is about past spending and whether Congress authorizes the federal government to pay bills for previously allocated expenditures.
While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has said the U.S. will not default on its debt, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, has left the possibility open, though on Thursday he claimed it was Biden who favored that outcome. Earlier Wednesday, Biden had warned, “If we default on our debt, the whole world is in trouble.”
When Trump was president, Republicans raised the debt ceiling three times — with no concessions to Democrats — while expanding the deficit, and in 2019 Trump said he couldn’t “imagine anyone using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge.”
When Collins pointed that out, Trump said: “Sure, that’s when I was president.”
“So why is it different now?” Collins asked.
“Because now I’m not president,” he replied.
This story originally appeared on Marketwatch
