REPORT: Trump wanted to print, borrow money to pay down national debt

When Donald Trump was a candidate for president, he promised to tackle the national debt, eventually balance the budget, and audit the Federal Reserve – he slammed the printing presses a few times on the campaign trail.

Since becoming president, none of these have come to realization as spending has skyrocketed, the debt has surged, and the central bank remains the same just a different face.

According to Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” Trump had an idea to coalesce all of these issues into one big league solution: print the money to lower the national debt and borrow a lot of money:

From CNBC:

“Just run the presses — print money,” Trump said, according to Woodward, during a discussion on the national debt with Gary Cohn, former director of the White House National Economic Council.

“You don’t get to do it that way,” Cohn said, according to Woodward. “We have huge deficits and they matter. The government doesn’t keep a balance sheet like that.”

Cohn was “astounded at Trump’s lack of basic understanding,” Woodward writes.

…

The president also floated an idea for making money from the recent rise in interest rates, according to Woodward.

“We should just go borrow a lot of money, hold it, and then sell it to make money,” Trump reportedly said.

The president also made clear that he was not pleased by the Federal Reserve’s current policy toward moving interest rates back to historical levels after suppressing them during the decade that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Cohn said he supported the Fed’s move to raise rates.

Trump then told Cohn that he wouldn’t pick him to be Fed chair, according to the book.

“That’s fine,” Cohn said, Woodward reports. “It’s the worst job in America.”

Who knows if the reporting is accurate? Cohn has dismissed the writing, telling Axios:

“This book does not accurately portray my experience at the White House. I am proud of my service in the Trump Administration, and I continue to support the President and his economic agenda.”

If true, it’s terrifying.